Voter data request, challenged in federal court, goes nowhere in Mass.
Voter data request, challenged in federal court, goes nowhere in Mass.
By Elaine Thompson
Telegram & Gazette Staff
Posted Jul 11, 2017 at 8:45 PM Updated Jul 11, 2017 at 11:19 PM
Monique Maher-Lefebvre said she was not surprised to learn that President Trump’s administration is trying to get personal information about voters in every state as a way to prove his allegation that he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million ballots because of widespread voter fraud.
Ms. Maher-Lefebvre, 66, a former city councilor in Southbridge, said the Republican president, who won by a majority of the electoral vote, just doesn’t like the fact that more Americans actually voted for his Democrat opponent. She said the president is acting hypocritically by asking for personal information when he refuses to release his income tax returns.
“Considering everything the administration has done so far, I am not surprised at that,” Ms. Maher-Lefebvre said Tuesday. “I think it’s just another way to get people to not to vote. It’s also a way to try to find out if there are any illegal aliens in the country who are voting, which I absolutely believe that isn’t the case.”
The president in May created the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity after claiming that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election. State election officials and election experts have said that voter fraud is extremely rare.
The panel, headed by Vice President Michael Pence, has requested that each state give them information about voters, including their name, address, party affiliation and voting history, as well as driver’s license information, criminal history, military status and the last four digits of Social Security numbers.
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But the June 28 request was put on hold Monday after groups including the American Civil Liberties Union filed lawsuits and complaints to intervene. The commission, which has a July 19 meeting scheduled, has said it will provide further instructions.
The ACLU’s federal lawsuit, filed Monday in Washington, D.C., alleges the president’s election commission lacks transparency because it violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which ensures the public accountability of all advisory committees.
Theresa Lee, an attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, in a news release, said the panel is required to provide timely notices of meetings so that the public can attend, and that written records of the meetings must be accessible to the public.
“The commission held its first meeting without notice or making it open to the public. This process is cloaked in secrecy, raising serious concerns about its credibility and intent. What are they trying to hide?” she said.
Some states have already submitted the information. However, the vast majority - including Massachusetts - have refused to turn over the data.
In some cases, voters across the country have gone to their local election officials to ask to be de-registered to protect their privacy.
The office of Massachusetts Secretary of State William F. Galvin does not know of any voters who have asked to de-register. But the office has received more than 100 telephone calls and “a few hundred” emails from voters concerned about their personal information being sent to Washington, and the motive behind the request. They were satisfied when they were told the state would not comply with the request.
Mr. Galvin said voter information in his office is only accessible to certified candidates and political parties. They are required to sign a license agreement that the information is only for the use of a campaign and that it will not be sold or given to anyone.
He said what he found surprising about the request is “the brazenness and lack of any factual basis.”
“I don’t consider the commission having a legitimate purpose. It’s not a genuine fact-finding commission.This is an ad hoc committee created by the president which seems clearly political. Its only purpose seems to be to find justification about his erroneous statements,” Mr. Galvin said Tuesday.
“He said (he lost the New Hampshire primary because) people living in Massachusetts were bused to New Hampshire to vote. I’ve called him out on it because it’s completely untrue. He’s just trying to find some reason to justify what he said.”
Mr. Galvin also noted that in the last portion of the commission’s letter, the panel said any information provided would be made available to the public. He said that in addition to problems associated with releasing part of a person’s Social Security number, it would be reckless and potentially problematic to publicize a person’s address and date of birth.
The commission, however, might get some voter information from individual municipalities, but much of the requested information is not public or recorded even at the local level.
Some voters are considering taking their names off voter rolls. Town clerks in most cities and towns in Central Massachusetts said they have not been contacted by voters with concerns or requests to be de-registered. But Niko Vangjeli, assistant city clerk in Worcester, said one voter completed a form last week to be dropped from the voter list because of the commission’s request.
“We reminded him that he could re-register if he chooses to do so,” Mr. Vangjeli said.
Two voters in Southbridge – Ms. Maher-Lefebvre and her husband, Victor Lefebvre - contacted Southbridge Town Clerk Madaline I. Bonadies about the de-registering process. To de-register, a voter must simply put in writing that they no longer want to be a registered voter and send it to local election officials.
Ms. Bonadies said this is the first time in the 14 years she has been town clerk that someone has asked to have their name removed from the voting list because of something like this. She said the Lefebvres changed their minds after she told them that their information would not be sent to the president’s election commission.
Ms. Bonadies said she has wondered why the panel wants the information.
“I just want to know why and what is it going to actually solve,” she said.
Mr. Lefebvre, 77, a retired fiber-optic consultant, said this is the first time in his lifetime that he has “absolutely no respect for the president.
“The man is actually destroying democracy as we know it,” he said. “I think you could write and direct a horror movie based upon the presidency of the U.S.”
http://www.telegram.com/news/2017071...owhere-in-mass
