Discussion: New York To Hand Over Most Voter Data To Bogus 'Election Integrity' Panel

In my haste for a scrap of good news, I initially read this as:
“New York To Hand Over Bogus Data To Voter ‘Election Integrity’ Panel”
But hey, it reminds me to call my governor again to stay out of this mess.

Edit: If Trump wants my election data, he can get it from the Russians.

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Because the Russians will be getting updates.

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Yes, there was a perfectly appropriate legal reason for denying the request, namely that the commission was not statutorily established under federal law and therefore does not qualify as a “person” under NYS FOIA.

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I wonder where Kobach is getting all his ideas from.

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If they have any finesse, the’ll target the blue areas of otherwise-red states for some suburban-exurban attention.
If not, the voting map of the entire country will look bright red, and that may look a little fishy.

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The thing is, aside from SSNs and driver’s license numbers, all that voter data is actually public information. Anyone can go into the local county BOE and, for a fee (it’s $15 here) request a CD with all the voters in the district. The file includes date of birth, address, sometimes phone, party, date of registration, and voting history for several years (whether they voted, not how they voted). That’s how campaigns contact voters.

I hate that they’re giving Kobach anything, but can’t see how they could really avoid it.

the Trump administration’s bogus voter fraud commission

Every time you use this phrase, a little girl decides to become a journalist.

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Voters are more dangerous than guns. Completely undemocratic.

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From the Times Union Article:

Instead, David said the information the Board of Elections provided on Wednesday was routinely given to the public and did not include that private, sensitize information.

“It is just the public information that anyone can get, and has gotten,” David said.

David also noted that the information provided Wednesday was only allowed to be used for election-related purposes, and any misuse could bring a criminal penalty.

(Emphasis mine.)

It sounds like they were just side stepping any drama of being called ‘uncooperative’ or wasting money by basically providing information that is (theoretically) already available to the public and is ‘non-identifying.’ By publicly declared as non-identifying, it can be extrapolated that:

  1. It would be difficult to use to identify someone as a fake or legitimate voter.
  2. The RNC et al already have this data and haven’t been able to use it to legitimize their upfront claims.
  3. If the commission does claim to identify people via the provided data, then either the commission is using non-governmental sourced datasets to bulk up those provided by New York state. This situation seems like it would also shift any liability for injuries resulting to anyone that is “identified” to the commission, and not the state. But, IANAL! Not even close, sadly.

I also wonder what the definition of “election related” is, in this context. Does that mean the running of elections? Does it include campaigns? Either way, it seems like they’re giving the group some rope to hang themselves with. Or maybe a Schrödinger’s live wire; it’s not like these goons have proven to be anything but unwieldy, flagrant and inept. (Not that we should let our guard down; just that it seems likely to me that Kobach and Pence could wind up facing even more legal issues if they aren’t careful in what they assert and how they back up said assertions…)

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Can’t believe there releasing the info to Kobach. ACLU is going to depose Kobach, should be fun.

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Fishy? Mayhap. I think it more likely they’ll run with whatever they think they can get away with and if they can turn the entire map red without even a spec of blue, they will, and they’ll just chalk it up to “that’s the REAL America that was being hidden by all the liberal fraud…all we did is follow the truth to where it took us…”

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Or just as likely a Russian database.

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Exactly. They don’t want small government all around, just in certain places–mainly the ones where it should be big.

Also, Spakovsky: yet another smackable face in Trumpworld.

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FYI

ILLINOIS

Undecided

Ken Menzel, general counsel for the Illinois State Board of Elections, said the board will consider the new request at its Aug. 22 meeting but won’t provide any information without board approval and notice to the public. He has previously said the board won’t provide information to the commission. In a letter to the commission, he said Illinois law limits the release of voter information to political committees and government entities, subject to a requirement that it not be released to the public. Menzel says that because the panel’s request indicates the data provided will be made publicly available, the state cannot turn it over.

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FYI

MICHIGAN

Partial

A spokesman for Republican Secretary of State Ruth Johnson said the department will provide publicly available information but would exclude data including Social Security and driver’s license numbers and full dates of birth. Fred Woodhams also said the commission would have to make a freedom of information request and pay $23 to get the data.

I know…and it pisses me off just as much if not more.

It’s strange. There are red states (TN, WY) denying the requests and some blue states (CT and OR) complying at least partially.

The country’s gone mad. No other explanation makes sense anymore.

Why isn’t Kobach wearing his swastika lapel pin?

That can’t be real, can it?