Trump panel's voter data request doesn't harm privacy, administration says
WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump's election integrity commission should be allowed to collect voter information, the administration argued, opposing a lawsuit challenging the panel's work as infringing on privacy rights.
Since it only asked for publicly available data there is no risk, according to the filing. The Electronic Privacy Information Center sued July 3 to halt the information gathering, saying the commission overreached because it didn't assess whether it might violate individuals' privacy rights before going to the states and the District of Columbia.
"The public interest weighs against emergency injunctive relief," the Justice Department said in a filing Wednesday in federal court in Washington. "The voter data that EPIC seeks to enjoin the Commission from collecting is already made publicly available by the states."
The Washington-based group had asked U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to halt the information gathering until the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity meets its obligations, and to order destruction or return of any data already collected.
About 40 states have said they'll reject the information request in whole or in part. Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said his state's laws bar compliance, while Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, a fellow Democrat, said the inquiry "serves no legitimate purpose and only raises questions of intent."
Republican Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann said "they can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico."
"Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL," Trump responded in a July 1 tweet. "What are they trying to hide?"
Trump created the panel with an executive order on May 11. The president has said his Democratic rival in last year's presidential election, Hillary Clinton, only won the popular vote because millions of people illegally cast ballots. Clinton garnered almost 3 million more votes, but Trump prevailed via the Electoral College.
_Bloomberg News
