Albany

New York will not comply with a request from a White House commission investigating voter fraud for all 50 states to provide all publicly available voter roll data by mid-July, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday.

"The electoral process is sacred and New York law has strong safeguards in place to prevent sharing of sensitive voter data and harassment against those who exercise their right to vote," Cuomo said in a statement. "New York refuses to perpetuate the myth voter fraud played a role in our election. We will not be complying with this request and I encourage the Election Commission to work on issues of vital importance to voters, including ballot access, rather than focus on debunked theories of voter fraud."

Prior to issuing the statement, Cuomo tweeted that the state wouldn't comply and linked to an NPR story about the letter from Kris Kobach, vice chairman of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, to state-level officials, some of whom also rebuked the request for data. The story includes a copy of the letter sent to the Alabama secretary of state seeking data, if publicly available under state law, that includes in part first and last names, middle names or initiations, addresses, dates of birth, political party affiliations, last four digits of Social Security numbers and voter history of all voters from 2006 onward.

The letter also seeks views and recommendations on what laws and policies hinder officials' ability to ensure the integrity of elections, what evidence officials have regarding instances of voter fraud or registration fraud, and what changes to federal law could be made to improve the integrity of federal elections.

In New York, most of the information sought by the White House commission can be obtained through a Freedom of Information request to the state Board of Elections.

President Donald Trump formed the commission through executive order in May after alleging for months that there was widespread voter fraud in last year's presidential election.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a frequent Trump critic, said in February that investigations by his office did not substantiate a single claim of voter fraud in the Empire State in 2016. The state Board of Elections also did not refer any voter fraud cases to him for 2016 by that time.

Experts also have said that while voter fraud is uncommon, the few instances usually are connected with local elections.

mhamilton@timesunion.com • 518-454-5449 • @matt_hamilton10