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A White House commission’s sweeping request for the personal and public data of the nation’s 200 million voters set off an avalanche of opposition by state leaders in both parties on Friday,
Officials from California to Mississippi called a White House commission’s request for the personal and public data of the nation’s 200 million voters as an overreach. So far, 20 states declared they would not comply with the request. Now, President Donald Trump has raised a question as to why.
On July 1, Trump wrote on Twitter, “Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?”
Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 1, 2017
The panel was created after Trump claimed last winter that millions of illegal votes had robbed him of a popular-vote victory over Hillary Clinton.
The vice chairman and day-to-day leader of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Voter Integrity, Kris Kobach, had asked election officials to turn over the data “if publicly available,” in order to support his investigation into possible election irregularities.
Besides election information like voters’ names and party affiliations, the New York Times reported that the commission sought personal information including birth dates, felony conviction records, voting histories for the past decade and the last four digits of all voters’ Social Security numbers.
Here are some reactions on social media to the request for voter data. What do you think about that request? Should that information be turned over for the investigation into voter fraud? Let us know in the comments section.
Any state that gives voter data to the Kobach Commission is giving our data to Russia to be used again our democracy in future elections!
— skot2uk3000 (@skot2uk3000) July 1, 2017
They are trying to keep your corrupt administration away from their voter data so you and Putin can"t do even more harm.
— Khary Penebaker (@kharyp) July 1, 2017
The personal data of every voter from your boyfriend, Vlad Putin. https://t.co/ZM9K5EnN3Q
— Eric Garland (@ericgarland) July 1, 2017
America doesn"t trust opponents of the Voting Rights Act w/ a national registry of all of our voter data and protected personal information.
— Rep. Jamie Raskin (@RepRaskin) July 1, 2017
Curious as to how gun rights advocates feel abt Feds" attempt to collect voter data. Sounds kind of like the makings of a "registry," yes?
— Steve Weichert (@SteveWeichert) July 1, 2017
Kobach wants to match voter information with other data, like federal records of foreign residents and undocumented immigrants, to distinguish whether illegal ballots were cast. He asserts that such fraud is widespread in Kansas and elsewhere, although he has found scant evidence of it so far.
Several states, among them California and New York, said participating in the attempt to compile voter data would legitimize or perpetuate false claims of massive voter fraud.
Election law experts and civil liberties advocates told NBC News they were concerned about the panel’s request and its implications for privacy and security and they suggested that the data could potentially be misused to lay the groundwork for voter suppression.
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore, Flickr
Source: B2C
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