typically requests come from state parties, candidates, issue campaigns to get a copy of the voter file. beyond that we limit who can get access and for what purpose. no matter who gets the voter file, it has to be maintained as confidential information. this is where we ran up against a problem with the request because in the letter it stated that any information that was provided to the commission had to be was going to be made public by the commission under the federal open records law. that was a conflict with state statute which said that the voter file had to be main taped as confidential information and because of that we could not transmit the voter file to the commission. a lot of people are raising invasion of privacy. it s already taking up a lot of information to get information that is already publicly out there. and it could be costly for some of these states to try to put this information together, transmit this information. so why do it? what do you think is behind
here outside of the optional last four digit social security number that is not available for purchase in the open market. i think it s a strawman argument, what it gets down to. the question is, is this commission going to not just look at were there people voting in multiple states that sort of election fraud that has had minimal evidence of existing. are they also looking at, you know, what was russia or someone else probing into voter files? were they trying to change voter files or interfere in the election in a way that would have changed votes or were they trying to find a way to do it next time. i don t know the answer to this. is the commission actually going to look at how to prevent a foreign adversary from actually meddling in our elections in a way that gets beyonds propaganda. that is something that s will be done in all 50 states. not something they can prevent. to hack into the voter file and my voter registration, it would have to be stopped at the state.
wasn t publicly available. you can buy a voter file. he was asking for things like criminal history, for things like lots of different things. social security numbers, for privacy issues that aren t publicly available and states don t want to give out. i think people thought, it s chris kobach. everyone s going to give these documents over. what happened is, you had so many republican states today come out and say they re not going to give this out. my favorite is the indiana secretary of state, who is on kobach s commission said she s not going to give him the data. he said he s not going to turning over the social security numbers. here s a question much give us what the histories are and what we should conclude about what they re up to based on those
secretaries of state flipping out, and almost, but just stopping short of giving the finger to chris kobach s request. he asked every state to provide lots of data on voters, he asked for lots of stuff that wasn t publicly available. you can buy a voter file. he was asking for things like criminal history, for things like lots of different things. social security numbers, for privacy issues that aren t publicly available and states don t want to give out. i think people thought, it s chris kobach. everyone s going to give these documents over.
have an effect on the results of an election, right? if a hacker screws up the voter file, voter registrations, that too could have an impact, particularly if it creates chaos on election day. we talked about that on last night s show. today time magazine moved the ball forward on that. they re reporting that the hacking of state and local elections databases was, quote, more extensive than previously reported. they say there was, quote, at least one successful attempt to alter voter information and the theft of thousands of voter records that contained private information like partial social security numbers. time is sourcing this to current and former officials. they say in one case investigators found that there had been manipulation of voter data at a county level. but the manipulations were discovered ahead of the election, and they were rectified. that s according to two sources who they say are familiar with the matter. now,time isn t saying what was stolen.