41 states are refusing to comply with Trump's voter data request


Three more states — Delaware, Louisiana, and Maryland — on Monday announced they will not comply with President Trump's request for an exhaustive set of voter data via the new Election Integrity Commission to investigate Trump's belief that pervasive voter fraud cost him the popular vote in 2016. By CNN's count, this brings the total number of states refusing full compliance to 41 (plus the District of Columbia).
The commission's request is that states list the name, address, date of birth, party affiliation, last four Social Security digits, and 10-year voting history of each 2016 voter. The request was sent by the commission's vice chair, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who later clarified he is "not asking for [voter information] if it's not publicly available." However, state-level voter privacy laws universally prevent sharing at least one item on the administration's list: Social Security numbers. Indeed, the potential for violating state law is a primary obstacle in the 41 states that have taken issue with the commission demand, as are concerns about voter privacy and data security.
Of the remaining nine states, some have yet to receive their request letter and some have received it but kept silent so far. Just three — Colorado, Missouri, and Tennessee — responded positively to the idea.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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