AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine officials said they won’t provide driver’s license information, including citizenship status, to federal officials looking to include the data in the 2020 census.
The Portland Press Herald reports the Census Bureau last month asked officials in all 50 states to provide information from driver’s license databases, including the citizenship status of license and state identification cardholders. The email from the bureau to Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said the information request is one of “several initiatives towards the Census Bureau’s goals for increasing the accuracy of the decennial count” as well as other research projects.
In late September, the state turned down the request.
The state doesn’t provide bulk data that includes personally-identifying information and lacks the capacity for the monthly reports requested, Deputy Secretary of State for the Bureau of Motor Vehicles Patty Morneault told census officials.
The Portland Press Herald also reported Critics of the Trump Administration said the request to state motor vehicle departments is an attempt to include citizenship as a key aspect of federal information-gathering in the run-up to the 2020 Census. The Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that a specific question regarding citizenship can’t be included in the 2020 Census questionnaire. Some worried that a citizenship question could lead to an under-count in the census because of concerns in some households over acknowledging that a non-citizen lives in the home.
There are federal and state laws that protect information provided for driver’s licenses, said Kristen Muszynski, spokeswoman for the secretary of state’s office, and Morneault’s response to the Census Bureau referenced the state law. Her email said the bureau saw its duty to serve Mainers looking to get driver’s licenses and law enforcement seeking to enforce motor vehicles.
The rejection of the bureau’s request, Morneault said, adhered to Maine law “and the sacred trust of the citizens of Maine.”