ACLU-NJ Letter to NJ Division of Elections Warns Against Releasing Sensitive Voter Data and Sounds Alarms About Commission Official’s Voter Suppression Record
The ACLU-NJ sent a letter (PDF) today to New Jersey Division of Elections Director Robert Giles urging New Jersey to reject the request from Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach on behalf of a federal Presidential Advisory Commission that asked all 50 states for expansive voter information.
The letter, signed by ACLU-NJ Senior Staff Attorney Alexander Shalom and ACLU-NJ Legal Director Ed Barocas, said the commission amounted to “a sham exercise designed to spread misinformation about election security at the expense of New Jersey voters’ right to privacy.”
“Voter fraud is not the problem, and turning over sensitive voter information to Kris Kobach, a known proponent of voter suppression, is not the solution,” the letter continued.
The following statement can be attributed to ACLU-NJ Senior Staff Attorney Alexander Shalom:
“New Jersey should not participate in a sham process that will be used to falsely justify attacks on voting rights. We should be doing everything we can to encourage, rather than hinder, participation in our democracy. We strive to have fair, safe, and transparent elections, and for that reason New Jersey must not hand over voter information to this commission.
“The actions this commission has taken already, along with the record of the official soliciting this trove of data, raise major red flags. We object to a process that risks corroding the integrity of our elections by disenfranchising eligible voters and threatening our privacy.”
