A Legal Lesson from Minnesota and the Licorice Swamp
By Elizabeth Dallam-Ayoub | February 25, 2024
For election integrity workers, the “peak of the mountain,” the ultimate goal, is safe, secure, transparent elections with no interference. With each election cycle or legal battle, they continue to climb the mountain to reach this summit — not unlike players in the game of Candy Land whose goal is to reach King Kandy’s Castle. In Candy Land, one can be three, little squares away from reaching the summit and be sent all the way back to, perhaps, Licorice Swamp.
In the world of election integrity, as workers get closer to the peak — which one might call “Pure Election Integrity” — just one, unhelpful court opinion can set back the advance up the mountain. Children continue to play Candy Land year after year to reach the castle; election integrity workers continue their struggle to reach the peak of Pure Election Integrity. Setbacks are part and parcel of each process, never a reason to quit. Pitfalls and snares abound in each!
Election integrity encompasses many steps — everything from ensuring the U.S. Constitution and individual states’ constitutions are followed, to enforcing federal and state election laws and keeping track of procedures at the county and township levels. Just as reaching King Kandy’s Castle brings giggles and smiles to the player who reaches it, so does the ongoing climb to the Pure Election Integrity summit bring satisfaction to each person who works to ensure that elections in this country are the safest and most secure in the world.
Legal Setback in Minnesota
In a lawsuit filed in Minnesota district court, children’s privacy was pitted against the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization.
A number of states (including Michigan and Minnesota) have contracted with ERIC to help them maintain their voter registration rolls. ERIC provides member states with reports that “identify inaccurate or out-of-date voter registration records, deceased voters, individuals who appear to be eligible to vote but who are not yet registered, and possible cases of illegal voting.”
The nonprofit, launched in 2016 with support and funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Foundation to Promote Open Society, has been embroiled in controversy.
In 1994, the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (18 U.S.C. §2721 et seq) was signed into federal law. Because it is federal law, every state has to comply with its provisions. The law’s purpose was to “protect the privacy of personal information assembled by the State Department of Motor Vehicles” in each state.
In both Michigan and Minnesota, when an individual applies for a driver’s license, the state records that person’s Social Security number, residence address, date of birth, and other private information. To ensure this information could and would not be share, the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act also provided what is called a cause of action (an ability to sue) against a person who discloses this information.
Minnesota, through the Secretary of State’s office, sent all the collected information from people, including minors, who applied for the initial driving permits, to ERIC.
Parents of Minnesota youth as well as the Association for Government Accountability filed a lawsuit in October 2024 against the Minnesota Secretary of State and the Director of Elections for disseminating this information, for violating the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act.
The Court of Appeals dismissed the lawsuit on February 18, 2025. There was no trial; the district court dismissed the case based solely upon the papers filed, and the Court of Appeals did the same. The Court’s opinion and order stated that Minnesota law allowed the Secretary of State and Director of Elections to do this because Minnesota passed a law allowing the state to sign a contract with ERIC and disclose this private information.
Back to Licorice Swamp for election integrity
For all concerned about election integrity or privacy concerns, it is a minor setback only. Anyone concerned about privacy can contact state legislators and educate them about their privacy concerns and ERIC.
Recently, a number of state attorneys general sued the Trump administration claiming the Department of Government Efficiency has illegal access to U.S. citizens’ private information. Now might be a right time for to ask those same attorneys general why they weren’t protecting children’s privacy when their states were transmitting minors’ private information to ERIC.
The summit of Pure Election Integrity is as much in view as is King Kandy Castle, and it is attainable. Continue to climb.
Elizabeth Dallam Ayoub is a MFEI contributor and a retired Michigan attorney.
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