Florida tells Presidential Commission on Voter Fraud it will Only Provide Data that is Already Public

by | Jul 7, 2017


Secretary of State Ken Detzner says Florida will only provide part of the voter data requested last month by President Trump’s voter fraud commission.

In a letter to the commission’s vice chairman, Detzner said the state will provide only that data that is already considered to be a public record. That would include the names of voters and whether they had voted in recent elections.

Detzner told the commission that Florida law prevented the state from turning over driver licenses and social security numbers, as well as the names of judges, state attorneys and law enforcement whose information is considered by law to be confidential.

“We are glad to continue following Florida’s public records law by providing the requested information to you that is publicly available,” Detzner wrote to commission member and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.

Florida was one of a handful of states that had not responded to the request from the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. The commission was created earlier this year by Trump to look into possible voter fraud in U.S. elections. Trump has claimed that 3 to 5 million people cast illegal ballots in last November’s general election.

The commission had sent letters to states last week asking for voting data such as registered voters’ names and addresses, birth dates, the last four digits of Social Security number, and  party affiliation.

Florida had been one of a handful of states that had not fully or partially rejected the commission’s request.

Detzner and Gov. Rick Scott had come under fire this week from Florida Democrats who opposed the release of the data.

In a letter sent to Detzner Thursday morning, the Senate Democratic Caucus urged the Secretary of State “to follow the example of the growing number of secretaries of state throughout the United States – Republicans and Democrats – in rejecting the request of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity for information concerning Florida’s 13 million registered voters.”

The letter from Senate Democrats says providing voter data on an unsecure federal website as requested by the commission would be “reckless” and questions the commission’s motivation.

“Releasing information about Florida voters for this national database, including information that may not be publicly available, is a blatant invasion of privacy and federal overreach,” the letter says. “It also begs the question of why this data is being sought in the first place, and whether voter suppression may be the ultimate goal.”

The chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, the three Democratic candidates for governor and several Democrats in Congress also sent letters to Dentzler.

 

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