Voter Fraud Commission Asked Texas to Highlight Hispanic Surnames in Voter Data
Documents uncovered by American Oversight confirm that President Trump's voter fraud commission submitted an order to the Texas Secretary of State requesting a list of all registered voters in the state – and asking for Hispanic surnames to be identified.
Documents uncovered by American Oversight confirm that the now-disbanded Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity (PACEI) had submitted an order to the Texas Secretary of State requesting a list of all registered voters in the state – and asking for Hispanic surnames to be identified.
Statement from American Oversight Executive Director Austin Evers:
“The president’s ‘voter fraud’ commission was founded on the lie that undocumented immigrants cast ‘millions’ of votes in the 2016 election, making the commission’s request to identify Hispanic surnames deeply suspicious. President Trump shut down the PACEI rather than allow the Democratic members to learn what the group was really doing, and now we’re starting to see why the White House was so desperate to keep these documents secret.”
Earlier this year, the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee posted an invoice for a voter data file that the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity (PACEI) had ordered from Texas. The invoice included a notation that the voter data was being provided with Hispanic surnames flagged.
On January 19, 2018 American Oversight filed a public records request with the Texas Secretary of State seeking copies of any correspondence between the PACEI and Texas regarding the commission’s request for voter data.
In early February, Texas responded to American Oversight’s records request and provided the original order form submitted by the PACEI to the Texas Secretary of State along with several other emails between the commission and state officials.
Separately, American Oversight is representing Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap, who served as one of four Democratic members of the PACEI, in his ongoing lawsuit seeking to enforce his right to access to the commission’s records. In late December, a federal court ruled that the commission could no longer continue excluding Dunlap from participating in its work – and just weeks later, President Trump shut down the commission.