Easy Elections NY Coalition Statement re Kobach Voter List Request

NEW YORK, NY (06/30/2017) (readMedia)-- Yesterday, news outlets reported that the Presidential Advisory Commission on Voter Integrity, created by President Trump's Executive Order in May, had sent requests to every state in the nation requesting vast amounts of voter data. The request, made by Commission Vice-Chair and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, has raised significant concerns among voting rights and privacy advocates across the country. Today, Governor Cuomo indicated that New York State will not provide the requested voter information.

The Easy Elections New York Coalition, a broad statewide coalition that advocates for modernizing New York's elections, released the following statement:

"The Election Commission's request, which asks every state to provide the full name, address, party affiliation, voting history, and partial social security number of every registered voter in the country, is alarming and threatens the privacy of voters. There is no information as to how such a wide-ranging data set would be used or secured and no indication that any thought has even been given to the vulnerability of such data or the numerous ways in which it could be used to compromise the privacy of, or harm, individual voters. Additionally, we believe the current request may violate New York law, which is very specific regarding the way in which voter data is made available. We applaud Governor Cuomo for safeguarding the privacy of New York's voters and refusing to comply with Mr. Kobach's request."

Under New York law, lists of active registered voters containing the names, residence addresses and party enrollment of registered voters is available for inspection at county Boards of Elections, as are lists of inactive voters which do not contain party enrollment information. New York State law provides safeguards to insure that sensitive voter information is not misused to harass voters.

The Easy Elections New York Coalition includes the following growing list of organizations from across the state:

2 Hours A Week

Action and Empathy

Brooklyn NAACP

Brooklyn Rebels

Brooklyn Voter Alliance of #GOBK

Common Cause/NY

The Empire State Progressives

Greater NYC for Change

Indivisible 330

Indivisible Village Ditmas

Inspired by Common Cause

Make the Road New York

New York City Indivisible Action (NYCIA) Council

New York Democratic Lawyers Council

NY Indivisible

NY Senate District 17 for Progress

NYPAN

SEIU 32BJ

Tally Up

BACKGROUND:

Easy Elections NY is a statewide coalition of grassroots groups & established organizations fighting to modernize New York's elections. Our goal is to pass simple solutions in 2017 to improve our elections and make registering and voting easier for all New Yorkers. The full list of coalition partners can be found at https://www.easyelectionsny.org/who-we-are/