The White House faced a growing revolt Friday as nearly half of the states refused to comply with a request from President Donald Trump’s panel investigating alleged voter fraud to hand over substantial amounts of confidential and sensitive voter data.
The Presidential Commission on Voter Integrity sent what some experts called an alarming letter this week to all 50 states and Washington, D.C., asking officials, including those in the home states of the panel’s chairs, to turn over “publicly-available voter roll data.”
However, the panel is also seeking sensitive information, including “dates of birth, political party (if recorded in your state), last four digits of social security number if available, voter history (elections voted in) from 2006 onward, active/inactive status, cancelled status, information regarding any felony convictions, information regarding voter registration in another state, information regarding military status, and overseas citizen information.”
The panel gave states two weeks to comply and said it would share the data with the public. The letter requests feedback from states with a series of questions, including citing instances of voter fraud, which experts have concluded is extremely rare.
Trump established the commission through an executive order and it is headed by Vice President Mike Pence. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, an immigration hardliner and strict voter identification law advocate, serves as vice chair and penned the letter.
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