States Tell Kobach To ‘Kick Rocks’ With Latest Request For Voter Info (TWEETS)

By
Darrell Lucus
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Earlier this spring, Donald Trump created a commission on “election integrity,” ostensibly to review concerns about the manner in which elections are conducted. The real purpose, however, soon became apparent–to troll for “proof” that Trump only lost the popular vote due to massive voter fraud.

The commission’s vice chairman and operating head, Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach, asked state election officials for a massive trove of voter data–Social Security numbers, party affiliations, voting records, the lot. What he got instead was a bipartisan revolt. Eventually, 19 states and the District of Columbia refused to comply, while 26 others only agreed to send data that is publicly available–and in all of the latter cases, it fell well short of Kobach’s demands.

Well, apparently Kobach is a slow learner. He’s gone back to the states with a new request for voter data. At least two of them have already told Kobach where he can go with this latest request and how he can go there.

Earlier in July, the Electronic Privacy Information Center sued the commission to stop its bulk collection of data. However, on Monday, a federal court ruled that the commission was exempt from statutes governing federal agencies, but warned Kobach to be very careful in how he collects data.


Kobach wasted little time sending a renewed request for data. On Wednesday, California secretary of state Alex Padilla released a letter he’d received from Kobach in which he promised not to release “any personally identifiable information” about voters or groups of voters. Rather, he only promised to release “statistical conclusions” about the data.

Padilla had already hinted that Kobach had a hard sell to make in order to convince him to release any data about California voters.

Within hours of receiving the latest request from Kobach, Padilla declared that Kobach hadn’t made it.

If possible, Padilla was even more blunt in his formal reply to Kobach.

Just minutes later, Kobach got another very public and very loud “no” from another election official who refused to comply the first time–Kentucky secretary of state Alison Lundergan Grimes.

Ouch. Wonder if Kobach is still getting Grimes’ shoe print off his slacks.

Grimes was slightly more polite in her official reply.

Grimes is more than willing to improve Americans’ access to the ballot box. However, she believes that Kobach’s latest request crosses a bright line.

Padilla and Grimes have very good reason to be wary. Kobach was recently fined $1,000 for making misleading statements about a memo he took into a November meeting with Trump, as well as proposed changes to the motor voter law.


So at least two states who waved off Kobach’s first request still aren’t willing to budge. Hopefully those who refused to cooperate earlier will continue to do so. And we might have a brand new battle cry in the bargain as well. Hopefully in 2018, we will have a chance to tell Kobach’s friends in congress to kick rocks.

(featured image courtesy Democracy International, available under a Creative Commons BY-SA license)

Darrell Lucus
Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.

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