Florida Democrats to Ken Detzner: Reject Trump administration’s request for private information of Florida voters

Florida is one of less than a handful of states that has yet to respond to the Trump administration’s election integrity commission’s request to provide extensive amounts of voter information. But before it can, several Florida Democrat lawmakers are calling on Secretary of State Ken Detzner to reject the request.

Kris Kobach, the vice chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Election Integrity, sent a letter to all 50 states last Wednesday requesting extensive voter data files, including registrants’ full names, addresses, dates of birth, political parties, the last four digits of their social security numbers, a list of the elections they voted in since 2006, information on any felony convictions, information on whether they were registered to vote in other states, their military status, and whether they lived overseas.

The request came months after President Donald Trump claimed, without evidence, that millions of people have voted illegally in the 2016 presidential election. While some states have complied, many others, especially those with Democratic governors, have vehemently objected.

In their letter, the Florida Democrat leaders call the commission “a total sham,” and say the whole exercise is “fearmongering at its worst and a direct attack on the integrity of our electoral process by our nation’s highest officeholder.”

“The false claim of widespread voter fraud has been universally debunked countless times,” writes Florida Democratic Party Chair Stephen Bittel, Senate Leader Oscar Braynon, Senate Leader-Designate Jeff Clemens, House Leader Janet Cruz and House Leader-Designate Kionne McGhee. “It is outrageous for the President to abuse his bully pulpit to spread such an egregious lie. By propagating this absurd claim, Donald Trump is severely undercutting the credibility of our democracy—to the citizens of this nation and to the members of the international community.

In addition, the Florida League of Women Voters sent a letter to Detzner Wednesday night, also calling on him to reject Kobach’s request. The Florida LWV contends that some of the information being request is shielded under Florida law, specifically listing the statute regarding social security numbers.

Earlier this week, Florida’s senior Democrat, Senator Bill Nelson, chimed in as well, dismissing the request as “ridiculous,”and saying, “give us your personally identifiable voters information that is not public, and we’re going to put it in a centrally registered point that is unsecured? It’s just an open invitation to North Korea, the Russians, China and non-state actors to come in and get that information.”

The Rick Scott administration has said little in the past week about the request. A spokesperson for the state department said earlier this week that they had received Kobach’s letter, and were “reviewing it.”

Read the letter in full below:

Dear Mr. Secretary,

Over the past week, top election officials from around the country—Democrat and Republican—have rejected requests for sensitive voter data from Donald Trump’s “election integrity” commission.

This commission is a total sham. Donald Trump’s assertion that 3 to 5 million votes were cast illegally is an outright lie. This is fearmongering at its worst and a direct attack on the integrity of our electoral process by our nation’s highest officeholder.

The false claim of widespread voter fraud has been universally debunked countless times.  For making this claim, Donald Trump is either massively ignorant and ill-advised, or this is a thinly-veiled attempt at justifying national voter suppression tactics—we believe it is likely a combination of the two.

This request is voluntary and many states have already refused to turn over their citizens’ data. We remind you that complying with this request may put voters at risk of identity theft, encroach federal rights to privacy, and violate the Federal Voting Rights Act in addition to the Florida Constitution.

There are certainly issues in our electoral system that should be addressed—foreign attempts to influence our elections come to mind most immediately.

It is outrageous for the President to abuse his bully pulpit to spread such an egregious lie. By propagating this absurd claim, Donald Trump is severely undercutting the credibility of our democracy—to the citizens of this nation and to the members of the international community.

We strongly urge our state government to show good judgement and reject Donald Trump’s request for the private information of Florida voters. To entertain the notion of massive voter fraud—where there is none— is to put our democracy in jeopardy. We trust that the administration will put politics aside in this instance and do the right thing.