Connecticut SOS Changes Her Mind About Cooperating with Pence-Kobach Commission

Celeste Katz:

When President Donald Trump’s new Commission on Election Integrity sent out a request for reams of personal information about voters, Denise Merrill was skeptical — but tentatively cooperative.

The Connecticut secretary of state released a statement saying that “in the spirit of transparency,” she would release publicly available information, while still “ensuring that the privacy of voters is honored by withholding protected data.”

But that very issue of transparency — specifically, questions about how the commission intends to use the data — led Merrill to inform the panel she won’t be playing along after all.

“I am in receipt of your request for information and have concluded that fulfilling your request is not in the best interest of Connecticut residents,” Merrill wrote to her Kansas counterpart, Kris Kobach, who’s chairing the panel with Vice President Mike Pence.

Merrill’s letter is dated July 2, the day after Trump questioned what states are “trying to hide” by refusing to hand over information to the “very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL.”

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