OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - Washington’s secretary of state said Friday her office will send some of the voter information requested by President Donald Trump’s commission investigating alleged 2016 election voter fraud.
Republican Secretary of State Kim Wyman said the state will send the commission names, addresses and dates of birth of registered voters because that information is available to the public, The Spokesman-Review reported (https://goo.gl/6i4vKo ).
“I have no choice. It’s public record,” Wyman said. Anyone can get that information from the state on request, she said.
She will not send the commission any other requested information including Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, phone numbers or email addresses. Those are not considered public information and not releasable, she said.
The letter sent to the states this week also asks for party affiliations but that information is not collected in Washington because voters don’t register by party and the state’s primary election system doesn’t require a voter to choose a specific party’s ballot.
Washington Democratic Party Chairwoman Tina Podlodowski on Friday called for Wyman to reject the request entirely, calling it a voter suppression effort.
“The most important job of the secretary of state is to protect free and fair elections,” said Podlodowski, who ran unsuccessfully against Wyman last year. “If Trump wants this information, he should get it himself.”
Trump lost the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton. But he has alleged without evidence that up to 5 million people voted illegally.
A lawsuit in 2004 by Republicans claiming voter fraud in a close Washington state gubernatorial election found no evidence of illegal votes cast for the Democratic winner, Chris Gregoire, and only a handful of votes cast for the GOP candidate, Dino Rossi.
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Information from: The Spokesman-Review, https://www.spokesman.com
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