41 states are now defying the Trump admin, refusing to go along with voter data scheme

Donald Trump’s so-called “Election Integrity Commission” — led by Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach — is struggling to launch its privacy-invading effort, which is nothing more than a thinly-veiled voter suppression gambit.

At the time of this writing, only three states — Colorado, Missouri, and Tennessee — have responded positively to Kobach’s letter, which demanded data including full names, dates of birth, political party affiliation, voter history, felony convictions, and more.

According to CNN, three other states — Florida, Idaho, and Nebraska — are “still reviewing the commission’s request,” while Hawaii, New Jersey, and Wyoming did not respond to their request for comment.

But 41 states, representing Americans from coast to coast and across the political spectrum, are staunchly refusing to acquiesce to Kobach’s outrageous demands, and they are not mincing words about why.

Mississippi Republican Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann invited the administration to “go jump in the Gulf of Mexico,” while the Democratic Governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe labeled the commission as “a pretext to validate Donald Trump’s alternative election facts.”

Maryland Democratic Attorney General Brian Frosh was emphatic about his opinions on the letter and the motivations behind it, labeling the request as “repugnant [and] designed only to intimidate voters and to indulge President Trump’s fantasy that he won the popular vote.”

And Kentucky’s Democratic Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes offered her own direct take on the letter:

KY Official: “There’s not enough bourbon in Kentucky” to make sense of Trump Admin. request for voter information https://t.co/zsLEk5TrpA pic.twitter.com/0bXsRX5pKg

— CNN (@CNN) July 2, 2017

Considering the man behind the effort, there is ample reason for these states to be supremely wary of his request.

In her statement rebuking the commission, Connecticut Democratic Secretary of State Denise Merrill called out Kobach’s “lengthy record of illegally disenfranchising eligible voters in Kansas.”

Indeed, Kobach has been a crusader for voter suppression efforts for sometime, pushing the timeworn Republican lie about massive “voter fraud” in his own state of Kansas and creating a nationwide system to undermine the right to vote for millions based on that same myth.

When Trump put Pence — who has also exhibited a marked hostility to voting rights — and Kobach in charge of this commission, it was clear what the aims of it would truly be. And 41 states have seen it for what it is, and they are not going to be dragged into the voter suppression muck alongside this administration.

Instead, they will stand up for their constituents, and for their right to participate in our democracy guaranteed by our Constitution.

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