LAWSUIT SEEKS TO STOP TRUMP VOTER COMMISSION'S DATA SWEEP

Lawsuit seeks to stop Trump voter commission’s data sweep

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Tuesday, July 4, 2017

A privacy group has filed an emergency request trying to block the Trump election integrity commission’s demand for states to turn over voter data, saying the information, if made public, would be a severe invasion of Americans’ rights.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed its lawsuit Monday afternoon in federal district court in D.C., and Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has set a speedy schedule, with the administration’s reply due by Wednesday afternoon.

The lawsuit is the latest resistance to the voter commission, run by Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Mr. Kobach’s letter last week requesting voter information from all 50 states — including names, dates of birth, addresses, voting and registration history and partial Social Security numbers — has set of a firestorm of criticism.

A number of Democratic governors and state elections officials said they would refuse to cooperate, as did some Republicans.

And on Monday the National Association of Secretaries of State weighed in, calling the Trump request an unprecedented demand and urging states to refuse to play ball.

EPIC, in its new lawsuit, says there are several problems with the voter commission’s request, starting with the way the panel has asked for information. EPIC says both the email address and the file sharing system the commission suggested are “insecure.”

Under federal law, the commission was required to do a privacy assessment before asking for this type of data — something the panel didn’t do, EPIC says.

EPIC also says that the commission has warned all information could become public, and the information requested, if it fell into scammers’ hands, would be a roadmap for identity theft.

“There is already evidence in the record that the Commission has placed and will place voter data at risk,” EPIC said in the lawsuit.

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