Secretary of State Dunlap says Maine wont release voter data to Trumps voter-fraud panel

[jpak]

Source: Bangor Daily News

AUGUSTA, Maine — Secretary of State Matt Dunlap told the vice chairman of President Donald Trump’s Advisory Commission on Election Integrity on Monday that he will not provide voters’ names and other personal information that the committee has requested of all states.

Dunlap, who became a member of the commission in May, told the Bangor Daily News last week that he was reviewing Maine law to determine whether providing the information is legal.

In his July 3 letter to Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the vice chairman of the commission, Dunlap said turning over the data would be unlawful because information submitted to the commission would be accessible by the public. That runs afoul of Maine’s confidentiality law.

“Because the statute on confidentiality is directory and the statute on access to the voter file is discretionary, it is not possible for my office to comply with the request and also comply with the law,” Dunlap wrote.

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Read more: http://bangordailynews.com/2017/07/03/politics/maine-wont-release-voter-data-to-trumps-voter-fraud-commission/

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[truthisfreedom]

1. More dump failure.

Ill-planned, poorly executed, guaranteed to fail.

[sarge43]

2. Bullying works once or twice,

then everyone gets on to the bully and stops backing down.

What's the score now? Four states have complied?

[atreides1]

4. List of replies as of July 3

Here is where the states stand, according to the National Association of Secretaries of State, as of July 3.

Alabama: Will provide information that is publicly available if convinced effort will “produce necessary results”

Alaska: will only partly comply by providing publicly available data

Arizona: will only partly comply by providing publicly available data

Arkansas: has not received a letter from the commission

California: will not release any personal data as requested

Colorado: will only partly comply by providing publicly available data

Connecticut: will only partly comply by providing publicly available data

Delaware: refuses to comply

District of Columbia: refuses to comply

Florida: is reviewing the request, no official decision yet

Georgia: will only partly comply by providing publicly available data

Hawaii: has not received a letter from the commission

Idaho: is reviewing the request, no official decision yet

Illinois: has not received a letter from the commission

Indiana: will only partly comply by providing publicly available data

Iowa: will only partly comply by providing publicly available data

Kansas: will only partly comply by providing publicly available data

Kentucky: will not release any sensitive personal data

Louisiana: refuses to comply

Maine: no official decision yet

Maryland: The state's attorney general issued a letter to the governor urging him and the state Board of Elections not to reply.

Massachusetts: will not provide information, as the information is not public record

Michigan: will only partly comply by providing publicly available data

Minnesota: will not provide sensitive personal information

Mississippi: refuses to comply

Missouri: will only partly comply by providing publicly available data

Montana: will only partly comply by providing publicly available data; voter file is public record

Nebraska: no official decision yet

Nevada: will only partly comply by providing publicly available data

New Hampshire: will only partly comply by providing publicly available data

New Jersey: no response

New Mexico: will not release personal voter information and will not release other voting information until convinced it will not be used for nefarious or unlawful purposes and provided with a clear plan for how it will be secured

New York: refuses to comply

North Carolina: will only partly comply by providing publicly available data

North Dakota: does not have voter registration; state law does not appear to permit sharing of information from the central voter file

Ohio: will only partly comply by providing publicly available data

Oklahoma: will only partly comply by providing publicly available data

Oregon: will only partly comply by providing publicly available data

Pennsylvania: refuses to comply with request

Rhode Island: will only partly comply by providing publicly available data

South Carolina: has not received a letter from the commission

South Dakota: refuses to comply

Tennessee: under state law does not allow release of information requested

Texas: will only partly comply by providing publicly available data

Utah: will only partly comply by providing publicly available data

Vermont: will only partly comply by providing publicly available data

Virginia: does not intend to respond to request

Washington: will only partly comply by providing publicly available data

West Virginia: has not received a letter from the commission

Wisconsin: will only partly comply by providing publicly available data

Wyoming: no official decision yet

[sarge43]

5. Thank you. What a joke. n/t

[Igel]

6. "Will only partly comply by providing publicly available data" is full compliance.

Most citations from the request leave out part of the request.

They're asking for a heap o' data.

Most blips from the request (I'll cite the one to Alabama--it's mail-merged) sound something like this:

"I am requesting that you provide to the Commission the voter roll data for Alabama: the full first and last names of all registrants, middle names or initials if available, addresses, dates of birth, political party (if recorded in your state), last four digits of social security number if available, voter history from 2006 onward."

Sounds invasive, but so misleading as to be fake. At the same time, the actual request is both less and more invasive. I'd hope most of this data is nowhere publicly available.

"In addition, in order for the Commission to fully analyze vulnerabilities and issues related to voter registration and voting, I am requesting that you provide to the Commission the publicly available voter roll data for Alabama, including, if publicly available under the laws of your state, the full first and last names of all registrants, middle names or initials if available, addresses, dates of birth, political party (if recorded in your state), last four digits of social security number if available, voter history (elections voted in) 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."

It's only asking for publicly available data. If they aren't publicly available, not providing them is not defiance because confidential data aren't requested. It's hard to miss the "publicly available," and some sources cite it and then pretend it wasn't part of the request. Some just ignore it.

The upshot is, "will only partly comply by providing publicly available data" presumes a straw man because such compliance is actually full compliance. Tennessee's response (information can't be released) is also full compliance.

Some others are being silly or begging for a high-publicity lawsuit; either way, that's their right. I assume "refuses to comply" is just compliance with an attitude: They can't provide it, and defiant refusal's so much more trumpesque than saying, "Can't do it" or "they only ask for public data, and we have none."

In other words, most states are complying with the request as provided. Not much of a story.

At the same time, most states are not complying with the request as reported. That the two things, the actual text and the reporting of the text, show such a wide divergence is a serious problem.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. Join, or Die

Join, or Die

Join, or Die is a political cartoon, drawn by Benjamin Franklin and first published in his Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1754. The original publication by the Gazette is the earliest known pictorial representation of colonial union produced by a British colonist in America. It is a woodcut showing a snake cut into eighths, with each segment labeled with the initials of one of the American colonies or regions. New England was represented as one segment, rather than the four colonies it was at that time. Delaware was not listed separately as it was part of Pennsylvania. Georgia, however, was omitted completely. Thus, it has eight segments of snake rather than the traditional 13 colonies. The two northernmost British American colonies at the time, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, were not represented, nor were any British Caribbean possessions. The cartoon appeared along with Franklin's editorial about the "disunited state" of the colonies, and helped make his point about the importance of colonial unity. This cartoon was used in the French and Indian War to symbolize that the colonies needed to join together with the Kingdom of Great Britain to defeat the French and Indians. It became a symbol of colonial freedom during the American Revolutionary War.

First we steal the rainbow; now this.