* Washington Post…
President Donald Trump’s voting commission, given a judge’s approval to resume seeking voter data, has issued another request asking states for information and vowing to keep the details confidential.
The voting panel has come under intense scrutiny and faced a wave of lawsuits since making a sweeping request last month for reams of “publicly-available voter roll data,” including names, addresses, dates of birth and partial Social Security numbers.
State leaders from both parties have expressed privacy concerns about potentially revealing personal information, while some officials and voting experts also have pushed back against the commission, which was formed by Trump after he repeatedly claimed - without evidence - that widespread voter fraud cost him the popular vote in last year’s presidential election. (Studies and state officials have found no evidence of widespread voting fraud.)
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, R, the commission’s vice chair, wrote in letters Wednesday that the voting panel prioritizes “the privacy and security of any non-public voter information.” Kobach vowed not to release “personally identifiable information from voter registration records” submitted to the group.
* From the State Board of Elections…
Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity Request - Update
Date: 7/27/2017
Description: The Illinois State Board of Elections has received the revised request from the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity for Illinois voter data. The request will be on the Board’s agenda at the August 22, 2017 meeting, and no voter information will be released without Board approval and advance notice to the public. If you have any comment regarding this request, please submit them in writing to webmaster@elections.il.gov.
- Precinct Captain - Friday, Jul 28, 17 @ 8:54 am:
If we just can’t be sure who won the election according to Kobach, we just can’t be sure the voter suppression commission will properly protect this data.
- wordslinger - Friday, Jul 28, 17 @ 9:02 am:
Tell Big Brother Birther to go fish — elsewhere.
- Last Bull Moose - Friday, Jul 28, 17 @ 9:31 am:
One of our best defenses against voter fraud is the Electoral College and the state by state voting system. Fraud in California or Alabama can only affect the outcome in that state. That limits the national effect.
- DuPage Saint - Friday, Jul 28, 17 @ 9:33 am:
I don’t like the big brother ness of it but if someone including the big brother asks for all “public ally available voter roll data” aren’t they legally entitled to it?
- Galena Guy - Friday, Jul 28, 17 @ 9:37 am:
Since Kobach can offer no evidence of voter fraud, they should reject this out of hand. Nevertheless I will be submitting a comment to the board of ekections. I suggest everyone elaw does too.
- Anonymous - Friday, Jul 28, 17 @ 9:52 am:
There is no “publicly available voter roll data.” The state board is not authorized by statute to release it publicly.
- titan - Friday, Jul 28, 17 @ 10:03 am:
+++ - Anonymous - Friday, Jul 28, 17 @ 9:52 am: There is no “publicly available voter roll data.” The state board is not authorized by statute to release it publicly. +++
True, but the Election Code provides for some voter data to be provided to political committees and governmental entities. While the request letter is clumsily worded (at least in the sense that it doesn’t smoothly mesh with Illinois law), the tricky question is whether the Commission meets the “governmental entity for a governmental purpose” test so as to be entitled to the information under Illinois law.
- Plainfield liberal - Friday, Jul 28, 17 @ 10:16 am:
There is a Senate Resolution, SR684, currently in Assignments which “Urges the State Board of Elections to decline any request to turn over or share personal data or confidential voter registration data to the Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.”
This should be called for a vote…is it possible during special session?
http://ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?GA=100&DocTypeID=SR&DocNum=684&GAID=14&SessionID=91&LegID=107435
- cdog - Friday, Jul 28, 17 @ 11:00 am:
There are problems with state voter rolls because they are not reconciled to each other.
In order to continue our honored place as a very free constitutional republic our voter rolls should be treated with great ceremony and sanctity.
If you still question the validity of complaints regarding corruption of state voter rolls, read this report.
http://g-a-i.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Voter-Fraud-Final-with-Appendix-1.pdf
- Anonymous - Friday, Jul 28, 17 @ 11:54 am:
FYI–
The Government Accountability Institute (GAI) is a conservative nonprofit investigative research organization located in Tallahassee, Florida. GAI was founded in 2012 by Peter Schweizer and Stephen Bannon with funding from Robert Mercer and family. Schweizer serves as the group’s president.
ABOUT. OUR MISSION: TO INVESTIGATE AND EXPOSE CRONY CAPITALISM, MISUSE OF TAXPAYER MONIES, AND OTHER GOVERNMENTAL CORRUPTION OR MALFEASANCE.
- cdog - Friday, Jul 28, 17 @ 12:02 pm:
Did Anonymous 11:54 just shoot the messenger and support my point? That’s awesome!
- titan - Friday, Jul 28, 17 @ 12:06 pm:
- cdog - Friday, Jul 28, 17 @ 11:00 am
I’ve investigated apparent “high confidence” double voting allegations in the past. The vast majority of the apparent double votes always turned out to be polling place process or data entry errors as to one of the votes - for example, John Jones moved and re-registered, but isn’t off the rolls at the old place yet. James Jones goes to the old place and is mistakenly given John’s application for ballot instead of his own. John appears to be a double voter, but isn’t. Actual double voting is probably in the 0.001% range.
- cdog - Friday, Jul 28, 17 @ 3:23 pm:
My 85 yr old mom said that my deceased dad got a new voter card in the mail, 1.5 yrs after he died.
Voter rolls should be required to be reconciled to the Death Master File at the Social Security Admin.