The Twitter story is a smokescreen. Trump admin asked all 50 states for voter rolls today.

[jpljr77]

I am as anti-conspiracy as they come. And "the president's" tweets are really loathsome, truly the stuff of a deranged 12-year old.

But I think it was an intentional bit of bait for the media and progressives, because he also did this today:

Trump election panel asks all 50 states for voter roll data

The vice chairman of President Trump’s commission on election integrity sent a letter to all 50 states Wednesday requesting information on their voter rolls.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is seeking several pieces of information about voters, including their names, birthdays, the last four digits of their Social Security numbers and their voting history dating back to 2006.

The letter, sent to the secretaries of state of all 50 states and obtained by The Hill, directs states to turn over “publicly-available voter roll data including, if publicly available under the laws of your state, the full first and last names of all registrants, middle names or initials if available, addresses, dates of birth, political party (if recorded in your state), last four digits of social security number if available, [and] voter history from 2006 onward.”

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/340117-trump-election-integrity-commission-requests-years-of-voter-data-from

[MFM008]

1. can they refuse?

If they can, I see the West coast telling them to PISS OFF.

[jpljr77]

11. I would hope so, and not just Western states. I can't imagine certain Eastern ones complying either

NY, VT, NH, MD, etc.

[politicaljunkie41910]

22. I agree. Why would the president be entitled to this information? This is state data intended for

a specific purpose and just because the president and his commissions demands it doesn't mean they are automatically entitled to data on me or anyone else simply because he wants it. I hope all the blue states resist. Make him go to the Supreme Court to obtain it, which he should lose because no one has ever been able to prove any voter fraud on a wide scale basis to date, and I don't imagine Trump and his minions have any evidence of any voter fraud either.

[brush]

27. Red flags should be going up all over the country. Koback is the Interstate Crosscheck vote purger

If they get that info we can kiss election wins all over the country goodbye as they will purge all AA, Latino and Asian-sounding names from the vote rolls.

[subterranean]

47. Or they could just purge registered Democrats.

They're asking for party affiliation so they won't have to guess by name or address anymore. They can just straight-out target Democrats.

They also want your address, so if you move and neglect to cancel your voter registration at your old address, they'll label you a "fraudulent voter" and cancel your registration at both addresses.

And if you have a name similar to someone else who's also a Democrat? You'll both be purged from the voter rolls.

The right-wing media would be outraged about this if a Democratic administration proposed it, but when a Republican president does it, it's a-okay with them.

[MFM008]

74. I read California is refusing

to comply.
Im sure others not far behind.

[brush]

80. They're definitely snakes. We need a well-funded, standing committee in the DNC to combat their ...

vote suppression — private investigators, attorneys, anti-hacknng experts — the works or they are just going to get away with rigging every election.

[Blue_Tires]

30. here you go:

Link to tweet

[Cha]

38. HAHA.. good ol Gov McAuliffe!

Link to tweet

[mahatmakanejeeves]

54. Give 'em hell, Terry.

What was the AG's margin of victory? 907 votes? Something like that?

[R B Garr]

69. Great link. Glad to see this is being exposed. nt

[DesertRat]

64. Yes!

[onecaliberal]

2. Fuck then. Until we know what happened with Russia and the election and the extent of

The collusion that maladministration Zhou get NOTHING from Amy state.

[gordianot]

3. Why not just ask your Russian friends?

Am sure they are much quicker.

[Iliyah]

4. More purging from Kobach.

Red states may comply but not purple and blue. This has to be illegal.

[shraby]

5. How dare they ask for the last four digits of the social security number!

As careful as they are with information, they'll probably sell it all to the highest bidder, foreign or domestic.

[Botany]

6. What does a voter list have to do with election integrity and Russia hacking our elections?

Kobach along with Russia helped to rig the last election and now he is in
charge of seeing what went wrong?

[brooklynite]

9. Serious answer: voter fraud

The claimed reason for this Committee is to research Trump's spurious claim of illegal voters, which includes people registered to vote in more than one jurisdiction.

[Botany]

13. Kobach and the Russians will just use that data to help "manage" future elections

Kobach is the reason Brownback kept his seat as governor of Kansas .....
even the republicans didn't like him and yet he won.

[Blue_Tires]

21. I think we're revisiting the whole "3 million people voted illegally for HRC" bullshit

[Amaryllis]

66. Kobach was involved in the Trump campaign and spins the narrative about voter fraud. This is

no doubt where T got it. ELECTION fraud is what we need to be looking at and Kobach was massively involved in that with the Interstate Crosscheck program.

[brooklynite]

7. Point to any example of strategic thinking that Trump has shown previously.

[ecstatic]

8. Is he asking for Putin? Wow! This is serious

And worrisome for 2018. But if they purge me or anyone I know, I'm calling and writing every news network I know.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. What if a state refuses to do it?

That kind of data should not be in the hands of this administration.

[Cha]

40. ..

Link to tweet

BlueTires

[AJT]

12. All the info they requested is publicly available.

I don't know what they think they can do with it, except make a really long "enemies list".

[TheFrenchRazor]

19. you mean you don't know what they can do with it *legally*... don't worry, they won't let the bounds

bounds of legality constrain them.

[WinkyDink]

24. Voting history is not. Secret ballot and all that.

[Mr.Bill]

32. The only voting history your state has on you

is whether you voted or not. No one knows who you voted for. There is no paper trail for that.

[AJT]

46. Is your party registration available? D or R etc.?

[Mr.Bill]

57. I can't speak for every state,

but it is in California.

[zz-la]

72. Isn't that already public information though

At least I thought it was. I do not know though.

[WinkyDink]

82. Yes. It's what campaigns use to GOTV.

[rzemanfl]

33. "Voting history" can mean did or didn't.

If the information is "publicly available" they can look it up, no need to ask the states to do their work for them. This, it seems to me, is a set up to claim the states "will not cooperate." The appropriate response is "Sure, just pay us for our time and materials like anyone else would."

[WinkyDink]

83. True. Some states or other entities have purged voters for "not voting in a long time."

[pangaia]

52. How can who I voted for be 'publicaly available?'

[Mr.Bill]

58. It isn't.

No one knows who you voted for. No paper trail exists. Think about it. Is your name on the ballot you dropped in the box? That ballot becomes anonymous once you cast it. One might assume you voted for your party's candidate, but that's all.

[CousinIT]

14. Whether that request is a big deal or not, this is KRIS KOBACH architect of 'crosscheck'

voter suppression system and it can be 100% guaranteed that this prick is up to NO GOOD with it. They only want to use it to implement NATIONWIDE voter suppression in the mold of NC and WI.

EDIT: Anyone who cannot grok that this jerk and SHitler are not to be trusted with this information is being a pollyanna. It's well known that they intend to claim MILLIONS voted illegally and to scrub voter rolls of people of color, women, and most Dem voters under the guise of "voter fraud".

[CousinIT]

15. Connecticut SoS rightly questions Kobach's request for the same reason I do...

Connecticut SoS responds: "Given Secretary Kobach's history we find it very difficult to have confidence in the work of this Commission"

[TheFrenchRazor]

18. the highlighted part is important; there is essentially no penalty for election rigging, at least no

nothing that will be applied until long after the bogus "winner" is certified, and even then it will only be a slap on the wrist. the GOP has learned this lesson very well.

[Tatiana]

16. Republican-controlled SOS offices will probably turn the information over.

But all Secretaries of State, especially those in blue states, should refuse to comply and prepare to litigate the issue.

They are trying to be sneaky by including the the phrase "publicly available." But, the last 4 digits of one's social security number and political party are not customarily publicly available information. This information "search" is unreasonable and a violation of privacy.

[GreenEyedLefty]

51. I live in Michigan and if they were smart they would not do this.

[TheFrenchRazor]

17. nothing to see here folks...seriously, we will never have another legit election in this country. nt

[Baitball Blogger]

20. Oh, hell. Not only can they give this information to a third party that

will remove undesirable voters, but they can send propaganda to the weakest links in this country.

[haele]

23. Can they take it to court?

That's a major privacy breach right there he's asking for. And all this the information will also become "available to the public"? There's absolutely no reason to have a centralized national voter roll with social security numbers and party affiliation, unless you want to "Cross-Check" those lists into throwing people of the opposition party off the rolls - right before an election year?
Unfortunately, I can see a few SoSs go along with this; but they've probably already used Cross-Check to get rid of pesky opposition voters.

Sue, sue, sue the criminals.

Haele

[Bernardo de La Paz]

25. Is the return email address kremlin.ru?

[riversedge]

26. I do not want my information in the hands of the WH. what can we do to

prevent this from happening??

[BigmanPigman]

28. Another excellent waste of time and money (ridiculous distraction).

[MontanaMama]

29. I just left a voice mail

for the Elections Services department at the Secretary of State's office in Helena, MT. I am following up with an email now. I don't want my information given to anybody. Kris Kobach is as dirty as they get. Get ready folks, this fight could be bad. They're stealing any election integrity that we have left right now.

[Delmette2.0]

35. Great idea.

Every SOS office should be swamped with phone calls and emails.

[MontanaMama]

41. :UPDATE:

* I got a return phone call from the Elections Services office. They tell me that they in fact do have a request from the DOJ asking for voter ID rolls IF state law permits turning them over. I am told that this policy may vary state to state. Apparently you can purchase the voter list in Montana for $1000. The clerk that I spoke to stated that whoever they are turning the info over to would not have access to "live data". Only the county elections secretaries have that access and can only add or delete data after a multi level log in process. That said, I don't trust that whatever election integrity we have remaining isn't being stolen at this very minute.

Keep your eyes on this people. Less attention to Dump's stupid tweets.

[Delmette2.0]

43. Thanks for the update

But, seriously, the entire state voter list for $1,000?
That is not even a penny per person on the list.

[MontanaMama]

50. I said exactly the same

Thing to the clerk who called me. He told he the price used to be $60. Wth? Seriously? I don't trust any of this. Montana is so damned red...I am holding out some hope that our Dem governor will stand up to this.

[TomVilmer]

60. No need for hacking computers...

... in a country where everything is for sale legally anyway. Capitalism is great!

[MontanaMama]

61. No shit.

And, no wonder...right?

[Delmette2.0]

65. I'm going to call Gov Bullock and my State Representative and

And my state Senator.

[MontanaMama]

70. Good. Thank you.

It is on my to-do list for first thing tomorrow as well. And, making another donation to the ACLU.

[Delmette2.0]

84. Just on KXLH News

Montana will not participate.

[MontanaMama]

85. This is SUCH great news.

FYI...the SOS elections officer never called me back today. This report makes me feel less like kicking his ass. Yay Montana!

[politicat]

31. The voter roll data is already public. This is Kobach being a lazy git.

The SSN last 4 is not public in most states.

The thing is, the Feds already have access to this. Facebook has access. I have access if I really want it. It can be downloaded from the Secretary of State's website.

There's a pretty good writeup in the Colorado Independent today, from the (Republican, but more paleo than Teabag) Secretary of State. (Kobach doesn't have many fans here, even among rabid Rs.)

http://www.coloradoindependent.com/166135/kris-kobach-voter-fraud-trumo-colorado-wayne-williams

[Mr.Bill]

34. That is correct.

California's SoS has already announced he will not cooperate, but the information being requested is available to the public.

[WePurrsevere]

36. Dear partisan voter suppression chair...

No

Yours truly,
Every sane Secretary of State


----
Most of this is publicly available so they can get it themselves. I'm against wasting NYe time and money on this BS that's being run by a nasty man, Kobach, who refers to himself as the "ACLUs worst nightmare" (see link below). To be clearer and more accurate he's our Constitution's worst nightmare.

If it's not publicly he can pound salt with open sounds because if it's not publicly available it's a violation of voters right to privacy and unacceptable.

All this so some buttholes like Kobach can suppress even MORE votes... umm.. f' you, NO.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/magazine/the-man-behind-trumps-voter-fraud-obsession.html

[bora13]

37. no IBM this time

they can write their own DB of those who they oppose.
I wonder if any other creepy group has ever wanted mass
records of those they hate?

[Kaleva]

39. You're giving Trump waaaay too much credit.

By all credible reports, the Trump White House is a giant cluster fuck.

[ancianita]

42. I agree with LivingBlue:

"Always remember that when given overwhelming evidence of Russian tampering and zero evidence of voter fraud, Trump chose to investigate us."

[procon]

44. The states will jealously guard their election data as a sovereign right

under the Constitution. They have always fought against any efforts by the feds to interfere or meddle with their rights to set their own electoral policies and procedures. They will not likely make such a major and far reaching concession to a president like Trump who has dismally low ratings and a diminishing clout to pull off anything as controversial as this.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

45. The Minnesota Secretary of State is skeptical.

"He said he views the commission with “great suspicion” and believes it has a predetermined outcome." http://blogs.mprnews.org/capitol-view/2017/06/simon-skeptical-of-white-house-request-for-voter-data/ He says he hasn't made a final decision. Maybe he needs me and other Minnesota DUers to help him...

[warmfeet]

49. I can help.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

53. I just fired off an email.

The Secretary of State's name is Steve Simon, email [e-mail]

[LiberalArkie]

48. There are plenty of states with tapes from the voting machine (Arkansas can't be the only one)

Take those and run a total and check the total against what was certified. If it is more the the margin of error, someone better be screaming. The error will not be at the voting machine but at the central tabulators.

[GreenEyedLefty]

55. The ACLU is already on it

https://action.aclu.org/secure/sham-voting-commission

[MontanaMama]

62. Good to hear

and thanks for posting. I'm headed to the ACLU website to donate. Again.

[R B Garr]

68. That is excellent news. Great link.

I just hope the MSM covers this.

[Cha]

56. We can multi-task.. this perversion of the squatter

in the wh needs to be address.

[KewlKat]

59. Muther Ru$$ia must have asked for the Con to bring them to the meeting next week. They need to

start tweaking the data for the midterm elections.

[lpbk2713]

67. Making a list of who the IRS will audit.

And who they won't.

[-Steph-]

71. Without voter suppression, gerrymandering, and all of these other dirty tactics they use, I honestly

don't think the Republicans could win general elections anymore. What they represent is just too outdated and grotesque. It's why they fight so hard to do what they can to rig elections, it's literally the only shot they even have anymore.

Unfortunately, the average person either doesn't care enough, or isn't aware enough to care, about what's happening to the integrity of our elections.

If they can get away with installing Donald Trump, of all people, into the White House.... against someone as formidable as HRC, then they'll have zero problems installing just about anyone else once they don't have to worry about the orange buffoon anymore.

[dalton99a]

73. Kick.

[ThoughtCriminal]

75. If this "Distraction" thing is really a strategy

It's sort of like a child breaking everything in the house to distract from a bad report card.

[jpljr77]

81. Think about who you're talking about here n/t

[Turbineguy]

76. Smart move

pretend like he can't get that information from Russia.

Well, maybe not that smart.

[TheDebbieDee]

77. This is Cross-Check implementation on a nation-wide basis...

The Trump Admin is not going to count of the Russians to flip votes for republican candidates in the 2018 Elections... The republicans are trying to make sure that they can prevent as many Dem-leaning voters as possible are denied their right to vote through Cross-Check!

[Ilsa]

78. VA gov. McAuliffe said "No". nt

[Gothmog]

79. No one should help Kobach suppress the vote