Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted announced this afternoon in a statement that he will not be providing the full voter information requested by Donald Trump's Election Integrity Commission.
The request, which has been denied by at least 10 other states including North Carolina, California, Virginia, Indiana (whose SOS is on the freaking commission which is co-chaired by Mike Pence) and others, is a scary one. It sought the full name, last four digits of the social security number, party affiliation, driver's license number, address and recent voting history of registered Ohioans. As many have pointed out, much of that information is already public but does not include the last four digits of socials. Here's Husted's statement on declining to turn over the confidential information not already available to the commission.
Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted on the White House request for voter info. Says state won't share SSNs. pic.twitter.com/A8gqJ7RGSu
— Nick Castele (@NickCastele) June 30, 2017
The commission, formed after the President's repeated and wholly unsubstantiated claims that there was massive voter fraud and as many as 3 to 5 million illegal votes cast in the election, is led by Pence and Kansas hardliner Kris Kobach, who you can and should read more about here. The request for state voter info, made public this week, drew quick rebuke from both privacy as well as civil rights advocates, who feared the creation of a massive, nationwide voter roll could be used to suppress voting access and rights.
Husted, a Republican, is running for governor.
