Maryland officials are rejecting a request from President Trump’s voter fraud commission to turn over voter information, joining a long list of states to refuse the request.

In a letter to Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R), who serves as the vice chair of Trump’s advisory commission on election integrity, the Maryland state administrator of elections declined to fulfill the request from the commission.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Disclosure of some of the information encompassed by your request may be prohibited under State and/or federal law,” Linda Lamone wrote. “Accordingly, I am denying your request."



Kobach’s request, which sought to obtain the names, birthdays, the last four digits of Social Security numbers and voting history of all registered voters, was also panned by Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh in a statement calling it “repugnant.”

“I find this request for the personal information of millions of Marylanders repugnant,” Frosh said. “It appears designed only to intimidate voters and to indulge President Trump’s fantasy that he won the popular vote.

“Repeating incessantly a false story of expansive voter fraud, and then creating a commission to rule that narrative, does not make it any more true.”

A majority of states have pushed back against the commission’s request, either refusing to provide any information or agreeing to only provide certain information to the commission.



Kobach criticized the states refusing to comply with the request, asking last week, “What are they trying to hide?”

“Frankly, if a state like Kentucky or California won’t provide available information, one has to ask the question, ‘Why not?’” Kobach said an interview with NPR last week. “I mean, what are they trying to hide if they don’t want a presidential advisory commission to study their state voter rolls?”