Add Category
Updated
US President Donald Trump has lashed out at the growing number of states refusing to give voters' names, addresses and sensitive personal information to a commission he created to investigate alleged voter fraud.
The President has repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims that millions of people voted illegally for his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, preventing him from winning the popular vote.
Mr Trump's Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity sent a letter to all 50 states asking them to turn over voter information including names, the last four digits of social security numbers, addresses, birth dates, political affiliation, felony convictions and voting histories.
The request from commission vice chairman Kris Kobach caused a backlash in states including Virginia, Kentucky, California, New York and Massachusetts, where election officials said they would not provide all the data.
More than 20 states have declined the requests, saying they are unnecessary and violated privacy, according to statements from election officials and media reports, prompting the President to chide the officials on Twitter.
Mr Trump established the panel by executive order in May despite evidence that voter fraud was not widespread.
"This commission was formed to try to find basis for the lie that President Trump put forward that has no foundation," Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes said.
Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann had said in a statement that he did not see the letter but would rebuff the commission.
In the months leading up to the election Mr Trump said he expected "large scale voter fraud" and often referred to the election as "rigged".
Reuters
Topics: donald-trump, world-politics, electoral-fraud, united-states
First posted