Obama Head of DOJ Civil Rights Division: ‘Pence and Kobach Are Laying the Groundwork for Voter Suppression’

Kobach Wants Every Registered Voter’s Name, Address, Date of Birth, Party Registration, Social Security Information, Voting History, Felony Convictions, Military Status, and Overseas Citizen Information

 

Vanita Gupta, President Barack Obama’s former head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, says Vice President Mike Pence and Trump’s Election Integrity Commission Vice Chair, Kris Kobach, are “laying the groundwork for voter suppression.”

There are a few facts you probably need to know first.

• Kris Kobach (photo) is the Secretary of State of Kansas. He is also the attorney for an anti-immigrant hate group.
• President Trump’s Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity is entirely made up. It is not a commission that has ever existed before. It was made up to prove Trump’s false claims about millions of people voting illegally. Now it’s going to be used for nationwide voter suppression.

• Kobach has a program called Crosscheck that he claims cuts down on voter fraud. Citing a New York Times report The Nation’s Ari Berman says that program “leads to 200 fake cases of double voting for every every double vote found.”
• Kobach, responsible for Arizona’s “show me your papers” law, claims voter fraud is rampant. The Daily Beast describes him as “one of the nation’s loudest voices demanding restrictive voting laws.”
• Kobach thinks 3.2 million non-U.S. citizens voted in 2016.
• The Kansas City Star (one of the largest papers in Kobach’s home state) calls him “a big fraud” on voter fraud claims.

That should be enough background for now.

Now back to Vanita Gupta, Obama’s Civil Rights who posted a letter sent to every Secretary of State in all 50 states (himself included, presumably) on Wednesday, requesting every registered voter’s first and last name, address, date of birth, party registration, social security information, voting history, felony convictions, military status, and overseas citizen information.

Imagine all that data living in one place, and Kris Kobach having control over it.

But that nightmare scenario aside, consider this: ThinkProgress today reports Kobach’s efforts have a “huge potential to disenfranchise many legitimate voters.”

The report from ThinkProgress explains that in Kobach’s home state of Kansas, his office “has used an arsenal of intrusive methods to find alleged non-citizen voters, according to an internal document obtained exclusively by ThinkProgress in April. In one case, Kobach’s office compared voter rolls to a list of temporary drivers licenses issued to non-citizens. It also commissioned two outside firms to poll non-citizens about their voting habits using drivers’ license information and other data, and it asked the Department of Homeland Security to compare a list of suspected non-citizen voters against its list of naturalized citizens.”

In a statement Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill noted “Kobach has a lengthy record of illegally disenfranchising eligible voters in Kansas.”

“The courts have repudiated his methods on multiple occasions but often after the damage has been done to voters. Given Secretary Kobach’s history we find it very difficult to have confidence in the work of this Commission,” Merrill added.

Also on Wednesday, as ThinkProgress reports, “the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division sent election officials in some states a request for policies and procedures about how they maintain their voting rolls—part of its enforcement of the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.”

ProPublica senior reporting fellow Jessica Huseman posted the request:

Bottom line: (1) Contact your state’s Secretary of State to let them know you oppose them sharing any state data with Kobach’s Election Integrity Commission. (2) Contact your local voter registration office in writing and ensure they respond, in writing, confirming you are registered to vote, and that your home address and party affiliation are accurate. (3) Make sure everyone you know – friends, family members, work associates – do the same.

If you think you can ignore Kobach’s efforts and everything will be fine, read these excerpts from the New York Times’ profile on Kobach, then read the full article:

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Image by AndrewRosenthal via Flickr and a CC license