FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 18, 2017
CONTACT: Amie Young, communications manager, ACLU of Kansas, 913-490-4105, [email protected]
OVERLAND PARK, KS — The American Civil Liberties Union today sent coordinated Freedom of Information Act requests to officials in Kansas, Indiana, New Hampshire, Maine, and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission seeking information related to the Trump administration’s new “Presidential Commission on Election Integrity.”
Though President Trump announced plans to form the commission months ago, he signed the executive order just last week. The commission is headed up by Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, whom the ACLU has successfully sued numerous times over his voter suppression policies. The FOIA requests target commission members who currently serve as secretaries of state — Kobach of Kansas, Connie Lawson of Indiana, Bill Gardner of New Hampshire, and Matthew Dunlap of Maine — as well as Christy McCormick, commissioner of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
“It’s clear to us that this commission has one primary objective, and it’s certainly not to protect the integrity of our elections,” said Micah Kubic, executive director of the ACLU of Kansas. “Over the course of his career in statewide elected office, Kris Kobach has repeatedly taken radical—and unlawful—measures to make it as difficult as possible for Kansans to vote and participate in American democracy. We have every reason to believe Sec. Kobach and his allies began crafting ways to nationally implement their voter suppression tactics long before they were named to President Trump’s phony commission, and we owe it to the American people to prove it.”
The ACLU previously filed a FOIA request seeking information that the Trump administration is using as the basis for its widely debunked claims of voter fraud.
The FOIA request can be found here: https://www.aclukansas.org/sites/default/files/ks_open_records_request_r...
All of today’s FOIA requests are here: https://www.aclu.org/other/aclu-launches-multi-state-legal-action-voting-rights
The National ACLU's statement is here: https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-launches-multi-state-legal-action-voting-rights
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About the ACLU of Kansas: The ACLU of Kansas is the statewide affiliate of the national American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU of Kansas is dedicated to preserving and advancing the civil rights and legal freedoms guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. For more information, visit our website at www.aclukansas.org.