Letters to the editor for Thursday, July 6, 2017

Protecting voter privacy is paramount

A committee that President Donald Trump convened to investigate voter fraud has begun asking election officials in certain states for registered voters’ names and personal information.

The commission, which is formally charged with investigating election integrity, sent a letter to election officials on June 28.

Members asked officials to provide voter roll data, including the “full first and last names of all registrants, middle names or initials if available, addresses, dates of birth, political party (if recorded in your state), last four digits of Social Security number if available, voter history (elections voted in) from 2006 onward, active/inactive status, canceled status, information regarding any felony convictions, information regarding voter registration in another state, information regarding military status, and overseas citizen information.”

The committee is requesting highly sensitive individual information that is not publicly available in pretty much every state; the letter says any documentation that states submit to the panel will be made public.

Before Secretary of State Cegavske responds to this request, I would ask that she inquire: What do you need this data for? How are you going to use it? What’s going to happen to the data while you hold it? Where is it going to be stored? What are the protections in place and what are you going to do with it when you’re done?

This looks like a targeted attack to suppress voting. Please contact Secretary Cegavske with your opinion: 775-684-5708, sosmail@sos.nv.gov.

Linda Deacy

Carson City