States Must Provide Voting Information To Election Integrity Commission
Every state “Secretary of State” received a letter from President Trump’s election integrity commission asking for information on voter rolls.
Kris Kobach, Kansas secretary of state, said the commission wants the following information:
- Full names
- Birthdates
- Addresses
- Political party affiliation (if noted)
- Voting history going back to 2006
- Last four digits of Social Security numbers
According to his letter, states must respond to a series of questions regarding their voting procedures, looking at the law, the policies and issues that can hinder them from making sure the elections are held to a high standard. The commission also wants information about convictions surrounding elected-related crimes, beginning from November 2000.
The letter said any information attained from the states would be made public. The deadline to turn over this information in July 14.
The head of the Democratic National Committee Commission on Protecting American Democracy Jason Kander slammed the letter, saying the letter was disturbing that the federal government was trying to attain information of all voters in the U.S. He said he doesn’t trust the administration with this kind of information. Kander said this should be disturbing to every person in the country.
Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill said her department would abide by the request in order to remain transparent. However, she challenged the commission to share memos, information and meeting minutes since state officials were not told what exactly the Commission is searching for.
Kobach, the commission’s vice chair, said the lack of openness should be of concerns, especially with some states like Kansas excluding eligible voters.
Vice President Mike Pence said the election integrity commission would get together for the first time in July. As a chair of the commission, members were told the focus would be to protect the one person, one vote concept.
In May, Trump signed an executive order that created the commission to ensure federal elections were honest and fair.
Both Trump and Kobach have been vocal with unsubstantiated claims that undocumented immigrants were voting in the elections. Trump has repeatedly claimed that he won the popular vote when the illegal voters were removed from the rolls.
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