Posted on 07/01/2017 8:36:37 AM PDT by Drew68
Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann will not comply with a request from President Donald Trump’s administration asking for detailed voter file information, including names, addresses, Social Security numbers and birthdates.
Hosemann, a Republican who did not endorse Trump during the presidential campaign, said his office has not yet received a letter from the administration. But he said if and when he does receive one, he will reject it outright. Hosemann is the one of the first Republican secretaries of state in the country to publicly reject the commission’s request, joining several Democratic colleagues in bucking the request.
“They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi is a great state to launch from,” Hosemann said in a statement on Friday. “Mississippi residents should celebrate Independence Day and our state’s right to protect the privacy of our citizens by conducting our own electoral processes.”
All 50 secretaries of state received a request for the information in a letter this week from Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who serves as vice chairman for Trump’s new Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.
The letter seeks the information to “study the registration and voting processes used in federal elections” that may “undermine the American people’s confidence in the integrity of federal elections processes.”
The commission’s request asks for the full names of registered voters, their dates of birth, registered addresses, voting history, and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers – all dating back to 2006.
Kobach was fined $1,000 by a federal judge last week for making “patently misleading representations” about documents he took to a November meeting with Trump that relate to federal voting law.
He told the Kansas City Star on Thursday that the personal data would be hosted on a secure server run by the federal government, and that the request for Social Security numbers was meant to ensure one person isn’t registered more than once.
Hosemann successfully won a 2014 federal case on the argument that state voter file information should be kept private and not shared with the federal government. He has gone to great lengths since the November presidential election to assure the public that there was no voter fraud in the 2016 presidential election.
Twenty-two Mississippians sponsored by Texas-based True the Vote filed a federal lawsuit against Hosemann and the state of Mississippi in 2014, seeking birth dates of Mississippi’s 1.8 million registered voters. Many of those 22 plaintiffs were supporters of state Sen. Chris McDaniel, who narrowly lost the Republican primary runoff to U.S. Senator Thad Cochran. McDaniel earned more votes than Cochran in the primary.
In court and in public, Hosemann pushed back, calling the lawsuit “ill conceived, incoherent, misguided, poorly drafted, filed in the wrong court and probably politically motivated,” saying all voter file information was available to anyone after properly redacting the voter’s birth date and social security numbers.
“The Mississippi Legislature enacted a law to protect your birth date and social security number from public dissemination,” Hosemann said in a statement in July 2014. “This out-of-state company (True the Vote) wants your birth date or wants you, the taxpayer, to pay the redacting and copying for them. Your locally elected circuit clerks are following the law.”
The federal district court ruled in Hosemann’s favor, tossing the case and stating the state restrictions on providing voter identification did not violate the federal voting rights act.
Hosemann touted the smooth election process last fall.
Yesirree !
Reeks of NeverTrump and of loaded voter rolls.
Yes, as if he might be part of the cabal which used lies and smears and possiblyi illegal tactics, to deny Chris McDaniel the election in the run-off. All of Mississippi knows that the GOPe at the least used dirty tricks.
The senile old coot Cochran is Chairman for the Senate Committee on Appropriations. How convenient for the committee.
My take is that he is a reliable cog in the "Mississippi Mafia" political machine who knows what is required of him if he wants to stay on this side of the sod (politically, if not literally).
>> This guy has no authority over the Gulf of Mexico <<
Not clear. Like all coastal states except Texas and Florida, Mississippi has limited jurisdiction out into the Gulf for three miles.
(Florida and Texas have jurisdiction for 12 miles.)
Sent Hoseman (fitting name for the RINO) a tweet to get his head out of the sand.
“They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi is a great state to launch from,” Hosemann said in a statement on Friday. “Mississippi residents should celebrate Independence Day and our state’s right to protect the privacy of our citizens by conducting our own electoral processes.”
...
The commission is only requesting data that’s publicly available in the state according to the state’s law.
The strange part is that Mississippi or Hosemann never even received this request. Nobody even asked him for it. Hosemann is commenting on letters that other state's SoS have received. He's being an ass based only on what he would do IF he received this request.
Does Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann believe in election integrity? Does he have other ways to assure us that Mississippi has election integrity? Or is he hiding something that he could or should be doing?
Is he really a Republican?
I think the solution is simple...That the Vote Commission purchase the same information that is available to state-wide candidates when they run, ie such as governor and senator.
I do not know how informative those rolls are, but they are available at a price. I saw mentioned for one state the cost was $12,500.
I do not want the Fed Gov to have such detailed information such as Soc Sec number, etc...K know they want to cross reference to see if such people are citizens, etc. But the States have rights too.
Perhaps this was an overshoot of an ask and settle for the rolls that are available to candidates. Who knows. The request does seem a bit over reaching imho.
Then again perhaps the request was to see who would shout the loudest? Or maybe it was just a bonehead move.
Based upon further information, I have to adjust my thinking here. If the commission is simply asking for the information that is available to the public then I do not see a problem here.
With early voting and modern transportation it so much easier to vote in several states. Borders and distance are no longer a hinderence to voter fraud. Add no voter ID and dead voters rolls. Illegals getting drivers lincences. Let’s face it, states are doing a horrible job maintaining voter roles.
This horrible job during national federal elections affects everyone in the country. With mobility, early voting, no voter ID, and states ignoring federal law, how are supposed to uphold the integrity of a national election?
“Good point. The feds are already involved in state voting, especially in southern states. “
Exactly, if we’re going to be stuck with them, we might as well get them to help us a bit.
“I do not know how informative those rolls are, but they are available at a price. I saw mentioned for one state the cost was $12,500.”
Sounds about right, and they’ll do that if they need to. In Texas it gets you name, address, date of birth, and telephone number (if submitted). Plus it gets you voting history for the past 3 federal election cycles. This includes which elections the person voted in (but never who they voted for), and which primaries they voted in (and yes, they will state Republican or Democrat). (and no, no SSN digits)
This is virtually the first thing that every credible candidate obtains and no doubt the state and county GOP and Dems have the same. So, in Texas, it’s a simple request to get the information back to 2012. Not sure what it takes to go back to 2006, but I’m sure it’s obtainable, by some means.
Voter fraud is widespread through out the nation. No more “requests”, time to empanel a grand jury and issue fed subpoenas.
Hose Man wants to be senator and I suspect that he didn't want McDaniel cutting in front of him while he waits for Cochran to retire.
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