Trump Voter Commission Request 'Troubled' CT Secretary Of The State

By Jack Kramer

Correspondent

HARTFORD, CT – Stating “in America, our elections are administered by state and local government,” Secretary of State Denise Merrill has released a new letter to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity stating she is “troubled” by its request for voter data.

President Donald Trump’s voting commission has issued a sweeping request for nationwide voter data that drew sharp condemnation from election experts and resistance from more than two dozen states that said they cannot or will not hand over all of the data.

The immediate backlash marked the first significant attention to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity since Trump started it last month and followed through on a vow to pursue his own unsubstantiated claims that voter fraud is rampant and cost him the popular vote in the presidential election.

The White House has said the commission will embark upon a “thorough review of registration and voting issues in federal elections,” but experts and voting rights advocates have pilloried Trump for his claims of widespread fraud, which studies and state officials alike have not found. They say that they fear the commission will be used to restrict voting.

Those worries intensified after the commission sent letters to 50 states and the District last

Wednesday asking for a trove of information, including names, dates of birth, voting histories and, if possible, party identifications.

The letters also asked for evidence of voter fraud, convictions for election-related crimes and recommendations for preventing voter intimidation — all within 16 days.

Merrill said as “Connecticut’s Secretary of State I am charged with the responsibility to ensure free, fair and accurate elections and my duty is to the residents of Connecticut, first and foremost.”

Merrill added that she was “particularly troubled by the fact that while you request files with personally identifiable information, there is no mention of how you to intend to protect those who are eligible for specific confidentiality terms under state law such as victims of domestic violence and law enforcement officers.”

She further stated in her letter that it is clear that the “most urgent and immediate crisis facing our democracy is the mounting evidence that Russian agents probed our election systems for vulnerabilities. And yet, it is the decentralized nature of our electoral system that has protected in these circumstances.

“To my mind,” Merrill continued, “the answer is clear: provide the states the resources to defend their election infrastructures from such invasions and support a strong, inclusive, transparent democracy that makes it easy for all Americans to participate.”

Image via State of Connecticut