Trump commission can only have public info on Washington voters

OLYMPIA – Washington will send some – but not all – the information on state voters being requested by a federal commission investigating voter fraud.

Secretary of State Kim Wyman said Friday the state will send the commission names, addresses and dates of birth of registered voters.

“I have no choice. It’s public record,” Wyman said. Anyone can get that information from the state on request, she added.

Her office will not send the commission any information about Social Security or driver’s license numbers, phone numbers or email addresses. Those are not considered public information and are not releasable.

The Presidential Advisory Commission on Voter Fraud, which was established by President Donald Trump amid his claims that some 3 million people voted illegally in the November 2016 election, also asked for party affiliation. But voters in Washington state do not register by party, and the state’s Top Two primary system does not require a voter to pick one party’s ballot.

The state has no way of knowing how voters mark their ballots, so it doesn’t have data on that.

In 2004, a lawsuit by Republicans claiming voter fraud in a close gubernatorial election turned up no evidence of illegal votes cast for the Democratic winner, Chris Gregoire, and only a handful of votes cast for the GOP candidate, Dino Rossi.

Earlier in the day, Washington Democratic Party Chairwoman Tina Podlodowski called for Wyman to reject the request, calling it a voter suppression effort.

“The most important job of the secretary of state is to protect free and fair elections,” said Podlodowski, who ran unsuccessfully against Wyman last year. “If Trump wants this information, he should get it himself.”