Letter to the Wisconsin Elections Commission - Wisconsin House Democrats Urge State Officials to Reject Presidential "Voter Fraud' Commission's Request for Sensitive Information

Letter

Dear Wisconsin Elections Commission,

We write today to strongly encourage you to disregard the request of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity (the Commission) for the State of Wisconsin to provide it with a list of names, social security data, addresses, dates of birth, political affiliation, criminal background, voting history, and military status of Wisconsin registered voters. The request exposes the private information of the Wisconsin electorate to the potential of being compromised in order to prove the baseless claim of President Trump that millions of people cast illegal in-person ballots.

The Commission's Vice Chair, and sitting Kansas Secretary of State, Kris Kobach maintains that the requested information is needed to safeguard against in-person election fraud. However, as Secretary of State, Kobach has not been able to demonstrate that in-person voter fraud is a problem despite it being his top policy priority. It is worth noting, he is the only Secretary of State with prosecutorial authority over ballot fraud. His aggressive pursuit to prove voter fraud in Kansas has resulted in only a single conviction, but multiple lawsuits.

Never before has the personal voting data of so many--over 200 million Americans--been compiled and stored in one source. The collection of this information by the Commission creates an undue risk to the privacy rights of Wisconsin voters. While we note that your current position on this matter is to supply the Commission with publically accessible data and to charge a fee for the remaining information, we caution that your decision to even partially cooperate with this inquest exposes the Wisconsin electorate to significant, irreparable harm, especially in light of allegations of extensive efforts by Russia and others to interfere in our democracy. A price should not be placed on the privacy of our constituents.

We know from our intelligence community that a hostile foreign government indeed tried to influence our 2016 presidential election. Former FBI Director James Comey confirmed in his testimony to the House Intelligence Committee that Russian military intelligence attacked our nation's voter software in an effort to influence the election and weaken our democracy. We have also seen reports in recent days that the Trump Administration has colluded with that same foreign adversary of which our intelligence community has warned. President Trump has yet to take any affirmative steps to secure both the state and federal voting rolls from further hostile foreign interference.

Given these facts, we find it reckless to increase voter data vulnerability by facilitating the Commission's request. Several studies at the state and federal levels confirm there is no evidence to validate President Trump's allegations of rampant illegal in-person voting during the 2016 elections. The inability of the Trump Administration to produce proof of in-person voter fraud does not necessitate the Commission or the collection of Wisconsin voter information.

It is also worth noting that neither Vice Chair Kobach's State of Kansas nor Commission Chair and Vice President Mike Pence's State of Indiana is participating in this request to provide data. Wisconsin should follow the example of the growing number of states that are rightfully choosing to protect their voters.

Sincerely,

Gwen Moore
Mark Pocan
Ron Kind