SALEM -- Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson on Friday rebuffed Trump administration efforts to gather private information about Oregon voters in an effort to root out potential voter fraud.

Richardson said a presidential commission can get the full list of Oregon voters' names, addresses and voting history the same way anyone else could: by paying $500.

The request for voter information from a federal commission investigating voter fraud generated outcry from some of the state's top Democrats, who implored Richardson not to turn over the records.

Democrats said the request from Kris Kobach, the former Kansas secretary of state who now heads the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, is inappropriate and would result in the disclosure of Oregonians' private information. All of Oregon's Democratic members of Congress, two Democratic state representatives and the Democratic Party of Oregon asked him to refuse to give Kobach information.

At least 20 states have already rebelled against Kobach's request, including California, New York and his home state of Kansas.

It would be illegal for Richardson to refuse to release public information, including voter names, addresses, party affiliation and voting history, regardless of who requests it. But Richardson noted that Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers and some of the other data Kobach asked for is confidential under Oregon law and he is duty-bound to keep it private.

In a letter to Kobach issued Friday evening, Richardson said he does not believe the federal government "should be involved in dictating how states conduct their elections." Richardson also said, "We have very little evidence of voter fraud or registration fraud in Oregon." He extolled Oregon's system, including vote-by-mail and automatic voter registration at the DMV, as a model for other states to emulate.

Richardson also told president Donald Trump in February that there was no voter fraud in Oregon.

"I'm pleased to report that in Oregon we have reviewed the processes and we are confident that voter fraud in last November's election did not occur in Oregon," wrote Richardson, who became Oregon's first Republican secretary of state in 30 years after taking office in January.

Critics have panned the commission Kobach now heads as an effort by Trump to suppress voting rights. Some Republicans -- including Trump -- have said unlawful voting is rampant. But elections experts point to data showing voter fraud is nearly nonexistent.

Kobach himself has been the subject of sharp criticism for his conservative views on ballot access and for being fined by a federal court last week for making "patently misleading representations."

In his June 28 letter, Kobach asked Richardson to send his commission Oregon's publicly available voter roll data. Kobach asked for regularly released information, like voters' full names, addresses, party affiliations and ballot-casting history. Any member of the public can learn that information about an individual voter from the voter's county elections office, and that data is frequently sold in bulk by the state to requesters, usually political parties and candidates for office.

But Kobach's letter also seeks information not normally given up by the state in voter data releases: partial social security numbers, dates of birth, whether a person has been convicted of a felony, military status and overseas residency status.

Requests to interview Richardson were not answered and he did not respond to voicemails seeking comment.

In his letter, Richardson told Kobach "We believe the best way to prevent voter intimidation or disenfranchisement is to follow the Oregon model of trying to get every eligible voter on the registration rolls through automatic voter registration and outreach efforts, and then, sending every registered voter a ballot."

-- Gordon R. Friedman

503-221-8209; @GordonRFriedman