A presidential commission established through an executive order signed in May will download and store requested voter-roll data on White House computers under the guidance of Vice President Mike Pence’s office, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, vice chairman of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, disclosed the plan in a court filing in response to a lawsuit filed by the watchdog group Electronic Privacy Information Center.
EPIC asked U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to bar all voter data requests until evaluation of the potential impact on citizens’ privacy is completed.
Kollar-Kotelly was expected to decide Friday on the appeal for a temporary restraining order with regard to voter data requests.
Kobach said in the court filing that Pence chairs the presidential commission and named other members of the panel.
Those include Connie Lawson, Indiana secretary of state; Bill Gardner, New Hampshire secretary of state; Matthew Dunlap, Maine secretary of state; Ken Blackwell, former Ohio secretary of state; Christy McCormick, commissioner with the U.S. Election Assistance Commission; David Dunn, former Arkansas state representative; Mark Rhodes, clerk of Wood County, West Virginia; and Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow of the Heritage Foundation.
