“When President Trump signed the executive order establishing the Pence-Kobach Election Integrity Commission to investigate alleged voter fraud, we knew it was really an attempt to bolster his allegation that 3 million people voted fraudulently in the last election. It is bad enough that a commission has been established to study a problem that does not exist, but the recent news that the Commission intends to collect sensitive voter data, including parts of social security numbers, and compare it to various federal databases is highly objectionable.

“Commission Vice Chair and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has a long history of suppressing the vote in his state, including removing valid voters from state voting rolls due to data discrepancies later deemed immaterial. Collecting and compiling state information and comparing it to federal databases is similarly likely return a number of irregularities, giving the Commission an excuse to bar individuals from accessing the ballot.

“In addition to suppressing the vote, compiling sensitive voter data is also an issue of privacy and national security. Our nation already struggles to combat domestic and international cyberattacks, and providing one database with all voter information is incredibly risky.

“Numerous state secretaries of state have already stood up against this government overreach, and we applaud their efforts to protect the integrity of US elections. We urge the Commission to retract this request and focus on real issues of voter suppression.”

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