President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

Vermont Secretary of State ...

“My office has received a request from President Trump’s Election Integrity Commission to provide voter information – including dates of birth, social security numbers, and other personally identifying information. While it gives me pause to enable the work of this Commission in any way, I am bound by law to provide our publicly available voter file, but will provide no more information than is available to any individual requesting the file.

I wholeheartedly disagree with premise of this Commission: namely, that there is widespread voter fraud. There is no evidence of the kind of massive fraud alleged by President Trump, Vice President Pence or Secretary of State Kobach. I believe these unproven claims are an effort to set the stage to weaken our democratic process through a systematic national effort of voter suppression and intimidation. In a statement released on May 12 (Professional Regulation | Home | Vermont Secretary of State commission-statement-press-release.pdf), I made clear that the true voter fraud is denying any eligible American the right to participate in our democracy and cast their vote. Voter suppression through unnecessary restrictions to the ballot box are not the American way.

This Commission is a waste of taxpayer money unless it focuses on the real issue of election integrity – the attempts by foreign entities to influence our elections. My focus is to protect Vermont citizens from bogus attacks on our democracy. I will not release any more information about Vermont voters than is available to any citizen requesting our voter file. Under Vermont law, the motive or identity of the requestor is not grounds for denying a request for a public record, so of course we must comply to meet the law. However, Vermont law does require that anyone requesting the voter file is required to sign an affidavit stating that the file will not be used for a commercial purpose. As soon as the Chair of theCommission provides us with that affidavit, we will provide the file, which DOES NOT and WILL NOT contain dates of birth, driver’s license numbers or social security numbers.

If this Commission is truly interested in the integrity of elections, I suggest they start first by examining at least a dozen other more meaningful issues regarding our electoral process:

• Foreign interference and attacks on our voting systems;
• EAC Funding;
• HAVA 2 – provide funding to states;
• partisan gerrymandering;
• updating election equipment;
• automatic voter registration;
• Election Day voter registration;
• requiring paper ballots;
• requiring election audits;
• providing expanded early voting opportunities;
• voting by mail;
• eliminating unnecessary voter ID laws that deter eligible voters;
• more convenient and accessible polling places; and
• reducing long lines and wait times at polls”

 

Fair enough.

 

In other words, you're going to give them exactly what they asked for, as bound by law.

Every other state will do the same.

The statement would be better if she made clear that the publicly available data was all she was asked for.

 

They're demanding birthday and SS#

The information requested includes the names, addresses, birthdates, political party (if recorded), last four digits of the voter's Social Security Number and which elections the voter has participated in since 2006, for every registered voter in the country.

 

TPM with some additional analysis of this piece.

This Is Big

 

Trump might shoot his big screen TV yet.

 

No they're not. They're requesting it, if it's among the publicly available data -- and even then, I think the request was for the last four digits.

 

Stop. It's a demand.

That said, I understand the psychology of it -- ask for everything knowing you won't get it and cause a stir while at the same time everyone will capitulate and provide the bare minimum.

 

Great couple of days for the media. The AP had to retract a story about a meeting between the head of the EPA and the CEO of Dow Chemical.

Both the AP and the Times had to correct articles that said "17 intelligence agencies" had concluded that Russia had meddled in our election.

And now, after everyone mocked Donald Trump, and his fake Time cover, CNN got taken in by a fake National Enquirer cover.

 

And get so caught up arguing technicalities that you hope people take their eye off the ball and forget that this bastard stepchild of commission, birthed from the fever dreams of a mentally crumbling sociopath, is stocked full of reactionary racists hell bent on erasing minorities from the voting rolls because they have the gall to vote Not Republican in overwhelming numbers and they don't want to pursue the alternative strategy of Hey Let's Try Not Being Racist.

 

Ya'll need an off switch.

There's booze to drink and fireworks to irresponsibly shoot off.