More state officials refuse to turn over voter roll data

Top officials in more than 10 states have announced they won’t turn over all voter roll data to President Trump’s commission on voter fraud.

As of Friday afternoon, officials in New York, California, Massachusetts, Kentucky and Virginia had said they would not turn over any of their voter data to the voter fraud commission.{mosads}

Other officials in Connecticut, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Vermont, Utah, North Carolina, Indiana and Iowa said they would only turn over public information on voter rolls, but wouldn’t share private information.

Wisconsin announced it would turn over public information but would charge the commission $12,500 to buy the voter roll data.

The stream of announcements comes a day after the voter fraud commission sent letters to all 50 states asking for voters’ names, birthdays, the last four digits of their Social Security numbers and their voting history dating back to 2006.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said the state would not be handing over information on its voter rolls on Friday, calling Trump’s claims of voter fraud during the 2016 election a “myth”.

NY refuses to perpetuate the myth voter fraud played a role in our election. We will not comply with this request.https://t.co/eQC6ORV0v1

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) June 30, 2017

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said he would not handover sensitive voter information, saying he “will continue to defend the right of eligible voters to cast their ballots.” 

Secretary Padilla’s response to the Election Commission’s request for personal data of CA voters: pic.twitter.com/UdUt55HSim

— CA SOS Vote (@CASOSvote) June 29, 2017

Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill agreed to hand over publicly available data but expressed concerns about “a lack of openness” about what the commission was seeking. 

My response to the Kobach Commission’s request for voter data. We will do everything in our power to protect voters’ rights pic.twitter.com/IpfX5Dgr7l

— Denise Merrill (@SOTSMerrill) June 29, 2017

Trump established the commission in May to “promote fair and honest federal elections.”

Vice President Pence announced on Wednesday the commission would hold its first meeting in July.

Trump has made unsubstantiated claims since his election win in November that he would have won the popular vote if it were not for voter fraud.

“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,” he tweeted in November.

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

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2016