PRESS RELEASE
NEW YORK — 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
