The Election Integrity Project (EIP), a California-based volunteer organization that aims to increase transparency in the voting process, has slammed a decision by California Secretary of State Alex Padilla to refuse to cooperate with President Donald Trump’s Commission on Election Integrity in its efforts to investigate claims of voter fraud.
In a statement, the EIP said (original emphasis):
California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, along 25+ other Secretaries of State (SOS) has refused to cooperate with the bipartisan President’s Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. He was asked to simply supply the state’s voter list to the Commission so it can investigate practices that could lead to improper or fraudulent registrations and voting. The requested information is, for the most part, public information, and no more than any candidate, education organization, research organization, among others, are privy to.
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Secretary Padilla states that he does not want to “legitimize already debunked claims of massive voter fraud.” California’s Election Integrity Project (EIP) asks not only when, where and how did the “debunking” take place, but more importantly, why protest an opportunity to conclusively prove through third party investigation his assertion that there is no election fraud in California? What does the Secretary have to hide?
Padilla was among the first state officials to reject the request for voter information from Kansas Secretary of Staet Kris Kobach, who is vice chairman of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. Padilla told the Los Angeles Times that he did not want to “legitimize” claims of voter fraud in California that he called “false.”
EIP President Linda Paine told Breitbart News that the organization takes privacy concerns seriously. Nevertheless, she said: “The secretaries of state can provide needed information while still protecting the privacy of voters.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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