Case 1:12-cv-00128-RMC-DST-RLW Document 119

Filed 05/11/12 Page 1 of 7

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

STATE OF TEXAS, Plaintiff, v. ERIC H. HOLDER, JR., in his official capacity as Attorney General of the United States, Defendant. ERIC KENNIE, et al., Defendant-Intervenors, TEXAS STATE CONFERENCE OF NAACP BRANCHES, et al., Defendant-Intervenors, TEXAS LEAGUE OF YOUNG VOTERS EDUCATION FUND, et al., Defendant-Intervenors. TEXAS LEGISLATIVE BLACK CAUCUS, et al., Defendant-Intervenors, VICTORIA RODRIGUEZ, et al., Defendant-Intervenors.

CASE NO. 1:12-CV-00128 (RMC-DST-RLW) Three-Judge Court

JOINT STATUS REPORT CONCERNING DATABASE DISCOVERY Pursuant to this Courts May 7, 2012 Order (Doc. 107), the parties jointly submit a report in order to advise the Court of the status of database discovery. The State of Texas

Case 1:12-cv-00128-RMC-DST-RLW Document 119

Filed 05/11/12 Page 2 of 7

The State of Texas produced the data requested by the Department of Justice from the Drivers License System Database, the License to Carry Handgun Database and the T.E.A.M. Database by May 4 and May 9, in accordance with the Courts order. Counsel for the Department of Justice has posed additional questions regarding information pertaining to the drivers license database and the State of Texas intends to provide the requested information as soon as possible. However, counsel for DOJ has confirmed this is not a production issue. The State of Texas produced ten sets of the data requested by the Defendant-Intervenors from the Drivers License System database and the License to Carry Handgun database on May 8, 2012, in accordance with the Courts order. The State of Texas produced ten sets of the data requested by the Defendant-Intervenors from the T.E.A.M. database on May 9, 2012, in accordance with the Courts order. Production of the data requested by Defendant-Intervenors has been completed. The State of Texas received notice today, May 11, that Defendant-Intervenors are having trouble accessing data files containing the Drivers License System data only; disks that contain large files with tens of millions of records. It is unclear to the State of Texas the particular problem Defendant-Intervenors IT expert is having with accessing the data, but no data other than Social Security numbers was omitted from the agreed fields and the problem is likely an issue of not being able to access the data provided. In addition, IT staff at the Office of Attorney General was able to access data in an exact copy of the disk that Defendant-Intervenors report difficulties accessing. Nevertheless, the State of Texas stands ready and willing to try and assist Defendant-Intervenors IT expert with problems he is having with accessing the data contained on one of the disks. Finally, Defendant-Intervenors request for the identity of Texass database expert is completely baseless. 2

Case 1:12-cv-00128-RMC-DST-RLW Document 119

Filed 05/11/12 Page 3 of 7

The Attorney General The Attorney General believes that he has in his possession complete copies of the fields contained within the Voter Registration Database, the Driver License Database, and the License to Carry Database necessary to match to the extent possible registered voters to individuals holding photographic identification necessary under S.B. 14 in the form of a Texas Driver License, Texas Identification Card, or a Texas License to Carry a Concealed Handgun. The Attorney General has posed five outstanding questions to counsel for the State of Texas, and Texas has not yet answered these queries. The answers to these additional questions will clarify how to properly use and interpret the databases provided. Therefore, although the Attorney General presently anticipates that additional versions of the databases will not be required, he cannot be wholly certain that he has in his possession all of the information necessary to interpret, compare, or match the databases until these questions are answered. Defendant-Intervenors An expert retained by Defendant-Intervenors, Professor Gary King of Harvard University, has reviewed the extracts produced this week to Defendant-Intervenors by the State of Texas of the drivers license database, the TEAM (voter registration and voter history) database, and the License to Carry Concealed Handgun (LCCH) database. As set forth in Professor Kings declaration and as explained below, he has determined that one of the database extracts for the drivers license database is non-compliant in that it is not usable for conducting data analyses relevant to this litigation. There is a second issue with the LCCH, which we believe has been resolved, but the expert had not had an opportunity to review new information produced by the State on that issue as of the time of filing.

Case 1:12-cv-00128-RMC-DST-RLW Document 119

Filed 05/11/12 Page 4 of 7

Drivers license database: The data provided from this database are substantially incomplete. The State omitted from the database extract the records for about 20 percent of the individuals who hold a license or state ID in Texas. The State has represented that this database, overall, includes approximately 25 million unique license and ID holders. The database extract produced to Intervenors provides data in four files (each file includes different data fields, except for one common reference field in each); the principal file is the person file (with 25 fields that hold data). That file in the version produced to the Intervenors includes only approximately 20 million records (19,926,894), not 25 million. 1 In this regard, the same file, as produced to the Justice Department (with more expansive information relating to social security numbers), does include approximately 25 million records. In short, Intervenors have not been provided records for about five million unique holders of a license of ID. Thus, about twenty percent of the necessary data are missing. LCCH database: Defendant-Intervenors initially identified a problem with the LCCH database, in that this database had been provided without a record layout. Shortly before this submission, the State provided Defendant-Intervenors with a record layout, which DefendantIntervenors believe will resolve the problem, but their expert had not had a chance to review the newly-produced documents at the time of filing. A final issue that Intervenors wish to bring to the Courts attention is that, in order to comply with the Courts order regarding the identification of database problems, and because, in particular, of the States production of a non-compliant drivers license database, the end result is

This file appears to be corrupted and is producing a computer error message when the file is unzipped.

Case 1:12-cv-00128-RMC-DST-RLW Document 119

Filed 05/11/12 Page 5 of 7

that Intervenors now have identified to the State the identity of their database expert. Intervenors respectfully request, therefore, that the Court require the State to identify any database expert it has retained. Date: May 11, 2012 Respectfully submitted, RONALD C. MACHEN, JR. United States Attorney District of Columbia THOMAS E. PEREZ Assistant Attorney General Civil Rights Division

/s/ Daniel J. Freeman T. CHRISTIAN HERREN, JR. MEREDITH BELL-PLATTS ELIZABETH S. WESTFALL BRUCE I. GEAR JENNIFER L. MARANZANO DANIEL J. FREEMAN Attorneys Voting Section, Civil Rights Division U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20530 (800) 253-3931

Case 1:12-cv-00128-RMC-DST-RLW Document 119

Filed 05/11/12 Page 6 of 7

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that on May 11, 2012, I served a true and correct copy of the foregoing via the Courts ECF system on the following counsel of record: Jonathan Franklin Mitchell Adam W. Aston Matthew Hamilton Frederick Office of the Attorney General of Texas jonathan.mitchell@oag.state.tx.us adam.aston@oag.state.tx.us matthew.frederick@oag.state.tx.us Counsel for Plaintiff J. Gerald Hebert hebert@voterlaw.com Chad W. Dunn Brazil & Dunn chad@brazilanddunn.com Counsel for Kennie Intervenors Debo P. Adegbile Leah C. Aden Ryan Haygood Dale E. Ho Natasha Korgaonkar NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund dadegbile@naacpldf.org laden@naacpldf.org rhaygood@naacpldf.org dho@naacpldf.org nkorgaonkar@naacpldf.org Counsel for Texas League of Young Voters Intervenors Nancy G. Abudu M. Laughlin McDonald Katie OConnor Arthur B. Spitzer Michelle Hart Yeary American Civil Liberties Union nabudu@aclu.org koconnor@aclu.org artspitzer@gmail.com Counsel Texas Legislative Black Caucus Intervenors Jon M. Greenbaum Mark A. Posner Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights mposner@lawyerscommittee.org jgreenbaum@lawyerscommittee.org Ezra David Rosenberg Dechert LLP ezra.rosenberg@dechert.com Robert Stephen Notzon Robert@notzonlaw.com Counsel for NAACP Intervenors John Tanner john.k.tanner@gmail.com

Case 1:12-cv-00128-RMC-DST-RLW Document 119

Filed 05/11/12 Page 7 of 7

Nina Perales Amy Pederson Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. nperales@maldef.org apederson@maldef.org Counsel for Rodriguez Intervenors

/s/ Daniel J. Freeman DANIEL J. FREEMAN U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20530 daniel.freeman@usdoj.gov