Trump convened the commission in May to investigate unsubstantiated claims of “millions” of illegal votes in last year’s presidential election, and it made waves last month when it sent letters to all 50 states requesting their voter-roll data, including name, address, date of birth, party affiliation, last four Social Security number digits and voting history.
Under state law, some — but not all — of the information requested by Trump’s voter fraud panel is already publicly available, but the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office requires a $250 payment to collect the information and burn it to a data disc. Officials in the office said they are treating the panel’s request no different than a typical public records request, and are requiring payment of the fee before the state will process the information.
State law allows information such as voter names, addresses, race and gender, among other data points, to be included on the list. Georgia will not share information considered private under state law such as registered voters’ driver’s license numbers and Social Security numbers. Since the ballot is secret, there are no records that show who a person voted for in any election.
The panel had asked states to hold off on sending anything while a federal judge considered a request for a temporary restraining order against it, but the judge on Monday denied the order. The ruling cleared the way for the panel to resume collecting information.
©2017 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Atlanta, Ga.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
