Massachusetts Won’t Give Up Voter Records to Trump
Photo by Gage Skidmore on Flickr/Creative Commons
President Trump’s voter fraud commission has asked states to hand over records on its voters in order to investigate his bizarre charge that millions of people voted illegally in last year’s election. And Massachusetts is saying “no.”
Secretary of State Bill Galvin said Thursday that he will refuse the Trump administration’s request for the information, which include every Massachusetts voter’s name, birth date, party affiliation, the last four social security number digits, as well as voting history, felony convictions, registrations in other states, and military status. The commission’s co-chair, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, sent a letter asking for it to all 50 states, dated June 28.
“They’re not going to get it,” Galvin’s spokesman, Brian McNiff, tells Commonwealth. “It’s not a public record.”
According to state law the voter info is not public, but secretaries of state can make them available on request if they decide to do so.
Massachusetts is not the only state to turn the request down. Connecticut, Kentucky, California, and Virginia have said they, too, will not comply.
Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill tweeted a copy of her reply to the commission Thursday, saying she would provide publicly available information, but nothing more. “We will do everything in our power to protect voters’ rights,” she says.
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
In California, Secretary of State Alex Padilla went even further while refusing to hand the records over, opining that the commission’s work was a “waste of taxpayer money” and that its “ultimate goal” is to “enact policies that will result in the disenfranchisement of American citizens.”
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
Trump has said without proof for months now that millions of people conspired to vote illegally for his opponent, Hillary Clinton, in November. Among Trump’s discredited theories is that thousands of voters had been bused from Massachusetts to New Hampshire to cast illicit votes. A New Hampshire Republican has taken exception to this allegation, and has offered $1,000 in exchange for even a shred of proof that this happened. So far, no one has come forward.
