Gerry Connolly Calls For End To Voter Fraud Probe
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Nothing To See So Don't Look
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Date: July 12, 2017 08:07PM
Dear Neighbor,
Yesterday I sent a letter to Vice President Pence urging he rescind the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity’s directive for sensitive voter data. This is nothing more than a thinly-veiled effort to carry out voter suppression on a national scale.
On June 28, Vice Chair of the Commission Kris Kobach sent letters to all 50 states and the District of Columbia directing them to provide publicly-available voter registration data, including full names, addresses, dates of birth, party affiliations, criminal history, information regarding military status, last four digits of Social Security numbers, and voter histories since 2006. This extensive order is a senseless exercise that could compromise the privacy of millions of Americans’ personal information, potentially violates several federal statutes, paves the way for illegal purging of voter rolls, and is based on false claims made by President Trump and members of his administration.
President Trump and Vice Chair Kobach have each made false accusations of widespread voter fraud in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In reality, a recent voter fraud study found only 31 credible incidents out of one billion ballots cast in the 2016 election. America doesn't have a voter fraud problem. We have a participation problem: too few people vote.
The truth is that Russian President Vladimir Putin directed a massive interference campaign to influence the election in President Trump’s favor, and 17 U.S. intelligence agencies agree with that assessment. Department of Homeland Security Acting Director of Cyber Division Samuel Liles testified under oath that as many as 21 state voting systems may have been targeted by Russian government-linked cyber actors.
We need a comprehensive investigation of this assault on our democracy. I will not allow this administration to attack the voting rights of our neighbors as a means to distract from Russia's interference in our election.
Sincerely,
Gerry Connolly
Member of Congress