After Donald Trump, still annoyed about losing the popular vote, created a ridiculous “voter integrity” commission, a public-comment process began, offering Americans an opportunity to submit their thoughts on the panel’s work.
And as it turns out, plenty of voters aren’t pleased. The White House released a lengthy document this morning, showing some of the initial American reactions to Trump’s absurd project, some of which aren’t suitable for publication on a family blog. “You are evil. Pray there is no hell,” one concerned citizen wrote. “You’re a disgusting fraud with no moral bearing whatsoever,” said another.
But what stood out as especially significant is how Trump World chose to release that information to the public. From the NBC News report:
When the panel released the public comments, some of them included voters’ phone numbers and email addresses.
The problem isn’t that the White House published the submissions from the public-comment process. Rather, the problem is the White House didn’t do any redactions.
If you weighed in on the commission’s work, and you included any personal information, Trump’s panel just released those details to anyone who cares to look.
There is a certain irony to this.
Trump’s commission, led by the nation’s most notorious voter-suppression pioneers, has asked states to turn over a voluminous amount of information, including the name, address, date of birth, party affiliation, last four Social Security number digits, and voting history for every voter going back more than a decade. Most states have balked, at least in part, with this request, but privacy experts have said that if the commission ever successfully collected all of this data, the risks would be enormous. Don’t worry, Trump World has said, the “voter integrity” commissioners — acting without oversight, layers of accountability, or legal authority — can be trusted to safeguard American voters’ personal data. Today’s news doesn’t inspire confidence.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
