Tony Rothert, legal director of ACLU of Missouri, said that Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s campaign to gather voter information, as vice-chair of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, is “nothing more than a guise for laying the foundation for more voter suppression across the nation.”
Kobach issued letters to Secretaries of State seeking disclosure of identifying information on voters across the country. Kobach requested state voter roll data, including: the full first and last names of all registrants, middle names or initials if available, addresses, dates of birth, political party, last four digits of social security number if available, voter history from 2006 onward, active/inactive status, cancelled status, information regarding any felony convictions, information regarding voter registration in another state, information regarding military status, and overseas citizen information.
“The ACLU of Missouri will make a Sunshine Law request to Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft to ensure that the office maintains the integrity of public records and does not give any Missourian’s private information over to this administration’s voter suppression campaign,” Rothert said.
Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said in a statement that his office had only been asked to provide “‘publicly-available’ information, which we would share with any person or organization making an open records request. We will protect Missourians’ private information.”
Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, also condemned Kobach’s move.
“This meritless inquisition opens the door for a misguided and ill-advised commission to take steps to target and harass voters and could lead to purging of the voter rolls,” Clarke said. “We urge Secretaries of State who received a letter from Kris Kobach to reject this request and discourage state and local officials from participating in this Commission’s dangerous activities.”
Clarke encouraged citizens to call its Election Protection hotline 866-OUR-VOTE (687-8683) to report complaints or any suspicious activity regarding the activities of the Election Integrity Commission
