DeGette Calls on Trump Election Commission to Withdraw Voter Data Request

Washington, DC —As President Trump prepares to convene the first meeting of his Advisory Commission on Election Integrity tomorrow, Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO), together with more than 70 other House members, is urging Commission Vice Chair Kris Kobach to withdraw his request for voter registration data since it raises significant security and privacy concerns. Their letter to Kobach comes after thousands of Coloradans have canceled their voter registrations in response to the commission's request.

The letter highlights the substantial risk to voters' privacy and security if their personally identifiable information is emailed to the federal government and stored in a central location. The Commission is requesting information that criminals use to commit identity theft, including full names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers. Sending such material through unsecure email and storing it in one place creates a single point of attack for hackers.

"The federal government has an obligation to protect the personally identifiable information of the American people," DeGette and her colleagues wrote. "We believe your June 28th request to the States would do the opposite by ignoring the critical need for robust security protocols when transmitting and storing sensitive personally identifiable information and by centralizing it in one place. While more than half of the States in our country have indicated they will not comply and the request was recently put on hold pending a lawsuit, we nevertheless urge you to withdraw this overly broad request due to the risk it poses to the sensitive data of millions of Americans."

The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity was created by Executive Order on May 11, 2017 after President Trump claimed without evidence that millions of people voted illegally for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential election. A comprehensive 2014 Washington Post study found only 31 instances of in-person voter fraud out of more than one billion ballots cast from 2000 to 2014.

"This bogus commission not only puts voters' personal information in jeopardy, it also creates a chilling effect that deters people from participating in the democratic process," DeGette said. "The Colorado Secretary of State's office confirmed last week that nearly 3,400 Coloradans canceled their voter registrations in the wake of the commission's request. It's clear that many Coloradans simply don't trust this ill-conceived effort, and for good reason. Maintaining the integrity of our elections is a critical priority, but this ‘investigation' is the wrong solution."

The full text of the letter is posted here.