Gov. David Ige joined a chorus of other state leaders Monday in criticizing a White House commission’s request for a trove of personal voter data. Ige said the state doesn’t have any assurance that the information would be kept secure and, at this point, doesn’t think the state should share those records.
“It also appears that the commission aims to address voter fraud. By all accounts, incidents of actual voter fraud are extremely rare,” Ige said in a statement. “I’m concerned this type of investigation would lead to a denial of voter access.”
Ige noted that as of Monday evening neither his office nor, apparently, any other state office had actually received the letter from President Donald Trump’s Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, which was apparently sent out to officials in all 50 states last week.
“When we get the request, I will share my concerns with state and county elections officials,” said Ige.
The commission’s letter seeks the names of registered voters, their addresses, birth dates, political party affiliation, last four digits of their
Social Security numbers and voting history. It also requests information on voter felony convictions, whether voters have registered to vote in other states, their military status and any overseas citizen information.
The commission asks that the states respond by July 14.
While states have balked at the breadth of the White House’s request, certain information is clearly public. Hawaii’s chief election officer, Scott Nago, noted that in Hawaii this includes voters’ names, district precinct and voter status.
Trump created his election integrity commission after claiming that millions of illegal votes had cost him the popular vote in the 2016 election. While Trump won the Electoral College, Hillary Clinton beat him by nearly 3 million votes, claiming 48.5 percent of the popular vote to Trump’s 46.4 percent.
“In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally,” the president tweeted Nov. 27, though there has been no evidence of this.
As of Monday more than two dozen states were rejecting Trump’s request for voter data, according to national media outlets.
The state “refuses to perpetuate the myth voter fraud played a role in our election,” said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat. Cuomo said the state would not turn over the information.
Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, a Republican, told the commission in a statement that “They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi is a great state to launch from.”
Trump lashed out against the resistance Saturday, tweeting, “Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?”
