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Eye On Boise

Denney blasts Dems over voter info suit, says he was already protecting Idahoans’ privacy

Idaho Secretary of State Lawerence Denney has sent out a guest opinion blasting the Idaho Democratic Party for filing a lawsuit over the Trump election integrity commission’s request for Idaho voter information, calling the lawsuit “frivolous” and saying his decision not to turn over any Idaho voter information at this time isn’t because of a legal settlement between the party and the state in the lawsuit.

“The reality is that Idaho has not refused to comply,” Denney writes, “but rather, with the suspension of the request by the designated federal officer for the commission, no ‘refusal’ was necessary.”

In the settlement, the state agreed not to send any voter information to the Trump commission without first giving 10 days notice to the party, to allow it to refile its lawsuit; in exchange, the party filed to dismiss the suit without prejudice, meaning it can be re-filed.

Denney, in his guest opinion, sharply criticized a statement from Idaho Democratic Party Chairman Bert Marley that the party protected Idahoans’ privacy by negotiating the settlement. Denney said Marley “did nothing to protect the privacy of Idahoans – that privacy was already well protected, and I take significant offense to the fact that you would insinuate otherwise.” You can read his full guest opinion here.

Denney also posted a timeline here, detailing the events that occurred and posting the various documents. He also included this comment: “The Idaho Democratic Party sued me to prevent me from doing the job that Idahoans elected me to do and that in fact, I had already done. I had already said on more than one occasion that no private information would be sent.”



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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