States resist voter registration data request
Texas to share public information but to omit partial Social Security numbers
AUSTIN — Texas and more than two dozen other states are refusing to fully comply with a sweeping and unprecedented White House request to turn over voter registration data, including sensitive information like partial Social Security numbers and party affiliation — making themselves the target Saturday morning of a Twitter storm by President Donald Trump.
Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos said his office will share any publicly available information with Trump’s Presidential Advisory Commission on Voter Integrity as requested, including the names, addresses, dates of birth and political party affiliations of the state’s more than 15 million voters. But the state will not be sharing partial social security numbers that the Trump commission asked for because that information is not part of voter rolls.
“The Secretary of State’s office will provide the Election Integrity Commission with public information and will protect the private information of Texas citizens while working to maintain the security and integrity of our state’s elections system,” Pablos said. “As always, my office will continue to exercise the utmost care whenever sensitive voter information is required to be released by state or federal law.”
Pablos’ comments come as governors in some states have flat out refused a request by the commission this week to hand over data. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, took to social media to blast the Trump administration for trying to collect the voter data.
“NY refuses to perpetuate the myth voter fraud played a role in our election. We will not comply with this request,” Cuomo said on Twitter.
Mississippi rejected the request on privacy and states’ rights grounds. “They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico,” Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, a Republican, said on Friday. “Mississippi residents should celebrate Independence Day and our State’s right to protect the privacy of our citizens by conducting our own elec-
toral process.”
Those states found themselves the targets of President Trump’s ire on Twitter on Saturday morning: “Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?”
Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, a Democrat, called the effort a waste of money.
“The president created his election commission based on the false notion that ‘voter fraud’ is a widespread issue — it is not,” Grimes said. “Kentucky will not aid a commission that is at best a waste of taxpayer money and at worst an attempt to legitimize voter suppression efforts across the country.”
Congressman Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, introduced a bill in late June that would ensure no taxpayer funds would be used to support the president’s commission to investigate acts of voter fraud, according to a statement from his office issued Friday.
“As the President continues to press his blatantly false claim that voter fraud cost him the popular vote in the 2016 presidential election, he endangers the sanctity of our nation’s democracy,” said Veasey, who represents parts of Dallas and Tarrant counties. “The commission’s mission to study non-existent voter fraud cases has nothing to do with ballot security and everything to do with voter suppression and discrimination.”
Using an executive order, Trump on May 11 created his commission to go after what he has told Republicans were 3 million to 5 million illegal votes cast in the 2016 election — a claim that has not been verifiable.
That commission is led by Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who authored the letter Wednesday to election officials around the nation including Pablos.
Brooke A. Lewis and Chronicle wire services
contributed to this report.