At Least 29 States Say They Won’t Turn Over Voter Information
States rights. More than two dozen states, with 30% of our country’s population, have refused to fully comply with a sweeping and unprecedented White House request to turn over voter registration data, including sensitive information like partial Social Security numbers, party affiliation and military status. Even Kansas, where Kris Kobach is the secretary of state, won’t provide all the voter registration information to a federal commission that Kobach co-chairs. Kobach said Friday that Kansas won’t provide Social Security information to the commission. Kobach earlier sent letters to every state on behalf of the commission, asking for names, addresses, voting history and other information. The Hill counted 29 states balking at the request: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. “I will not provide sensitive voter information to a commission that has already inaccurately passed judgment that millions of Californians voted illegally,” said California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, a Democrat.
Christie baked. Enterprising photographer Andrew Mills of NJ.com scored a coup over the weekend. He got aerial photos of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie basking on a deserted state beach that was closed due to a budget dispute between the governor and the state legislature. Christie, who has been rebuffed for a job in the Trump administration, spent part of Sunday afternoon enjoying the beach at Island Beach State Park. The state park was closed to the taxpaying public on the holiday weekend because of a state government shutdown that Christie ordered while trying to get his way about the state budget. Christie stayed at a summer beach house provided by the state and commuted by state helicopter. When confronted with the photos, unapologetic Christie said: “Run for governor, and you can have a residence there.” Mills describes himself as a ”real photojournalist who moonlights as a lifeguard EMT at the Jersey Shore.”
Enough is enough. A former federal prosecutor who worked at the Justice Department has a corporate watchdog has resigned, saying she could no longer work under Trump. Hui Chen, who had also worked at Pfizer and Microsoft, left the department in June. Chen wrote on LinkedIn that she wanted no more of “trying to hold companies to standards that our current administration is not living up to.”
Nuclear dumps. Trump wants to move nuclear waste to one or more temporary storage sites. The Energy Department was supposed to haul radioactive waste away from nuclear power plants by 1998. Two private companies are asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permission to build storage sites near the Texas-New Mexico border.
Featured photo: Video grab of California Secretary of State Alex Padilla discussing his refusal to hand over voter information.
