California Secretary of State Alex Padilla (pictured above) on Thursday refused to send any information from the state’s voter rolls to the dubious “election integrity” commission convened by the Trump administration.
The commission’s vice chair, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, demanded Thursday that all 50 secretaries of state hand over the voter information to the commission, which has committed itself to combatting voter fraud, even though that occurs at minuscule levels across the United States.
Kobach’s own career-long effort to institute strict voting laws has vaulted him to the top of conservative policy circles on the issue, in addition to earning rebukes from several federal judges.
“I will not provide sensitive voter information to a commission that has already inaccurately passed judgment that millions of Californians voted illegally,” Padilla wrote. “California’s participation would only serve to legitimize the false and already debunked claims of massive voter fraud made by the President, the Vice President, and Mr. Kobach.”
He was referring, presumably, to Trump’s repeatedly debunked claims that Hillary Clinton only won the popular vote in the 2016 election due to millions of illegal votes. Kobach repeatedly backed the bogus claims.
In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2016
Serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California – so why isn't the media reporting on this? Serious bias – big problem!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 28, 2016
Read Padilla’s full statement below:
Secretary Padilla's response to the Election Commission's request for personal data of CA voters: pic.twitter.com/UdUt55HSim
— CA SOS Vote (@CASOSvote) June 29, 2017