Election fraud:

Panel pauses request for data amid legal challenges.

CONCORD, N.H. — President Trump’s commission on election fraud is telling states to hold off on providing detailed voter information in the face of increasing legal challenges.

The commission had given states until July 14 to provide data including names, birth dates and partial Social Security numbers, but in an email Monday, the panel’s designated officer told states to hold off until a judge rules on a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington.

In its initial filings , the commission said it planned to collect the data via a Department of Defense file exchange program. After the privacy group said that system was neither secure nor approved to collect such information, the commission said the director of White House information technology would repurpose an existing system instead, and information already sent by Arkansas would be deleted.

The privacy group updated its complaint on Tuesday to add the information technology director as a defendant.

“The Commission may not play ‘hide the ball’ with the nation’s voter records,” the group wrote. “With such vast demands for personal information come commensurate responsibilities to provide security and privacy, and to comply with all legal obligations. Surely that is fundamental for an organization charged with promoting ‘election integrity.’ ”

Trump created the commission in May to investigate his allegations —offered without evidence — that millions of people voted illegally in 2016.