Federal court rejects challenge to Trump voting commission

WASHINGTON — A nonprofit privacy group cannot stop President Donald Trump’s election fraud commission from collecting millions of voter records, an appeals court ruled Tuesday.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit determined that the Electronic Privacy Information Center “is not a voter” and therefore does not have standing to demand that the commission assess privacy concerns before assembling a vast database of voter information.

EPIC “has no traditional membership, let alone members who are voters,” the judges wrote, and thus has only an “abstract social interest” in the voting commission’s work.

A lower court ruled the group did have standing for a court challenge but could not force a privacy assessment because the commission is an advisory board, not an independent government agency.

Its legal challenge stems from a 2002 law designed to protect the privacy of individuals whose data might be collected by the government. The judges, however, concluded that the law concerns individual privacy, not the public oversight EPIC aims to provide.

Trump created the election integrity commission after alleging, without evidence, that widespread fraud cost him the popular vote last year.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican who chairs the commission, sent a letter in June to all 50 states asking for the name, address, date of birth, party affiliation, felony record, last four Social Security digits and voting history of every registered voter.

Since then, the collection effort has faced several legal challenges, including one from a commissioner who says Democratic members have been shut out of the panel’s work.