Given his loss of the popular vote in the 2016 election, President Trump has continued to maintain that there was widespread voter fraud. Regardless of there being no evidence to support this claim, the White House in May established the ‘Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity’ to investigate any alleged voter fraud. Trump claims that at least three to five million people have voted illegally – roughly the same number he lost the popular vote by.
On Wednesday, the commission sent a letter to Virginia and the 49 other states requesting a list of all registered Virginia voters, the last four digits of their social security numbers, their addresses, date of birth, political affiliation, and their voting history.
But on Thursday Gov. Terry McAuliffe said in a statement that he has, “no intention of honoring the request.”
“Virginia conducts fair, honest, and democratic elections, and there is no evidence of significant voter fraud in Virginia,” he said in his press release. The press release went on to say, “This entire commission is based on the specious and false notion that there was widespread voter fraud last November. At best this commission was set up as a pretext to validate Donald Trump’s alternative election facts, and at worst is a tool to commit large-scale voter suppression.“
The press release finished by saying that he wasn’t going to move resources away from the upcoming gubernatorial election in November.
“In 131 days Virginia’s Department of Elections will again conduct a statewide election for the offices of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General, as well as 100 House of Delegates races and numerous other positions. I’m not going to divert resources that could potentially compromise that important work to enable this politically motivated and silly posturing.”
According to the Associated Press, the commission gives secretaries of state approximately two weeks to provide about a dozen points of voter data. Besides the above information listed, any information on felony convictions and military status was also requested.
In addition to Virginia, California and Kentucky have all stated that they will not share the voter information.
