States Refuse to Give Voter Rolls to Trump Election Panel
SANCHEZ: You may recall President Trump making the stunning allegation that millions of illegal votes were cast for Hillary Clinton, even though he won the White House. Now a special Commission on Election Integrity is asking all 50 states for personal voter data that might prove the president's claim. But many states are saying they will not cooperate. Trump tweeting this out today, quote, "Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished voter fraud panel. What are they trying to hide?" Our Tom Foreman shows us numerous states are refusing the commission's request for some sensitive data.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So many cities are corrupt. And voter fraud is very, very common.</s>TOM FOREMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In a quest to root out allegedly rampant voter fraud, the president's commission wants an ocean of sensitive information about every voter, including the person's full name, address, date of birth, political affiliation, voting, military, and criminal records, part of his or her Social Security number, and more. States, particularly, some Democratic blue ones, are pushing back hard. California is flat-out refusing to hand over the info.</s>ALEX PADILLA, CALIFORNIA SECRETARY OF STATE: The president's allegations of massive voter fraud are simply not true.</s>FOREMAN: So is New York: "We will not comply." Virginia, too: "There is no evidence of significant voter fraud."</s>FOREMAN: But some states that went Republican red for Trump are also balking, including Utah, Alabama, Iowa, and Wisconsin. They'll hand over only some data. And still others are dismissing the whole idea of voter fraud run amok.</s>MATTHEW DUNLAP, MAINE SECRETARY OF STATE: We might find some illegal activity but not on the scale described.</s>TRUMP: People that have died ten years ago are still voting. Illegal immigrants are voting.</s>FOREMAN: As a candidate, Donald Trump insisted fraud was a real problem.</s>FOREMAN: And even after he won the Electoral College, he lashed out at news more people voted for Hillary Clinton, tweeting, "I won the popular vote, if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally."</s>TRUMP: So many things are going on.</s>FOREMAN: To help steer his commission, he chose Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who calls the states' complaint complete nonsense.</s>KRIS KOBACH, KANSAS SECRETARY OF STATE & DIRECTOR, COMMISSION ON ELECTON INTEGRITY: We're looking at all forms of election irregularities, voter fraud, intimidation, registration fraud, voter intimidation, suppression.</s>FOREMAN: Kobach has zealously hunted vote cheaters back home for months, yet he's found less than a dozen provable cases out of more than a million and a half registered voters. What's more, he's a champion for voter I.D. laws, which many skeptics consider a way to suppress minority votes. And he was fined by a federal judge in Kansas just last week for his conduct in a lawsuit involving voting rights. Connecticut state: "Given Secretary Kobach's history, we find it very difficult to have confidence in the work of this commission." (on camera): Underlying it all is this simple fact, there is simply no credible evidence that there's ever been a widespread voter fraud problem. That's adding, clearly, to the hesitancy of many of these states. Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.</s>SANCHEZ: Thanks for that, Tom. On one side of the political spectrum, you have accusations of voter fraud. The other side has concerns about privacy and voter suppression. We get both sides now. Joining us, CNN political commentator, Ben Ferguson, host the "Ben Ferguson Show," and Democratic strategist, Zac Petkanas, a spokesman for the Hillary Clinton campaign. Ben, first to you. Critics say this panel will be used to restrict voting, restrict access to voting. Why should we truss the commission?</s>BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: One, this commission would not have the power to decide what states do and what they decide to do when it comes to what I.D.s to show when it comes to voting. I would say that's definitely fearmongering. The federal government is not able to trump state governments. We've heard that from many Republican and Democrat leaders in many different states. A great example is Mississippi where the A.G. in Mississippi has said they're not going to turn over all the information because it would violate their state law. That's a Republican saying that. So this idea that somehow this commission is going to have so much power that they'll be able to dictate to the states how they choose to do things is just not accurate. What I do think the panel could do is actually look at some of the ways people might have the ability to somehow decide to do voter fraud. And it's nice to look at different states and to see what things may work in some states to suppress voter fraud and to fight against it. And that's how people I think should look at this commission, not so much as they have a whole lot of power.</s>SANCHEZ: You have the secretary of state of Mississippi, Ben, saying, "Jump into the Gulf of Mexico." Zac, to you --</s>FERGUSON: Yes, and that's Republican.</s>SANCHEZ: Yes. Zac, I want to play some sound for you, something Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Grimes said on MSNBC said yesterday. She and several of her counterparts refusing to comply with the Election Commission's request. Here she is.</s>ALISON GRIMES, KENTUCKY SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, there is not enough Bourbon here in Kentucky to make this request seem sensible. And I'm proud that Kentucky has led the way. And as you noted at the top of the broadcast, numerous other states have followed. Not on my watch are we going to be releasing sensitive information that relates to the privacy of individuals. Not on my watch are we going to be turning over something that's left to the states to run. Elections --</s>GRIMES: -- are left to the states under the Tenth Amendment.</s>SANCHEZ: Not enough Bourbon in Kentucky. Some colorful language from both secretaries of state there. What do you make of so many states refusing to comply.</s>ZAC PETKANAS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST & FORMER SPOKESMAN, HILLARY CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: Well, I say good on them and good on the state of Kentucky. Let's be clear. This commission is called a Voter Fraud Commission. But it is, in fact, a voter suppression commission. And you know that because the chairman of this commission, Kris Kobach, has a history of doing this in his state of Kansas, where he is the secretary of state. We are talking about somebody who wants to gather personal pieces of information, information that he himself in the state of Kansas is refusing to hand over to his own commission. And the reason is very clear. He wants to do what he did in Kansas, which is purge the voter rolls. In Kansas, what ended up happening was that individual citizens, who shared the name of undocumented immigrants, they had their voting rights stricken. They were -- they were taken off the roles. It is nothing more than an attempt to gather information in order to -- to give down recommendations to restrict voting rights. And not just the voting rights of anybody, the voting rights of minorities, the voting rights of people that they think --</s>FERGUSON: That's not true.</s>PETKANAS: -- will vote Democrat. It absolutely is true.</s>FERGUSON: It is -- first of all, the fearmongering here is the saddest part of this, where you're trying to somehow make this into, one, a racial thing and, two, make it into a dictating-type thing from the federal government. If you know the law, the law makes it abundantly clear, the states are the ones that decide. You can look at the recommendations that may come down from the commission and you can choose to throw them in the gulf or to douse them in Bourbon and set them on fire, to quote the two A.G.'s. But the part here that's so frustrating is we know there are some vulnerabilities to our system. We've been obsessed about vulnerabilities when it comes to hacking from Russia. Why are we not giving the same amount of attention to the reality that there are vulnerabilities in this country? I will also say this. It's a sad day when we require people to show an I.D. to do virtually everything in this country. And no one says it's racist when you're registering kids in school or getting on an airplane or getting assistance for government housing or food stamps. But somehow, when you go to vote, we don't want to protect that vote enough to actually say, hey, it might be a good idea to show an I.D. so that we know someone else doesn't take advantage of the system and actually vote on your behalf without your knowledge. This is just common sense. But we've turned it into such a politic point that it's sad. It should not be a political point. We should protect everyone's vote, no matter who they are.</s>PEKANAS: Here we go.</s>SANCHEZ: Zac, I'll give you have a chance to respond.</s>PETKANAS: Thank you. I mean, here we go. He said the magic words. This is about voter I.D.'s, which we know that Texas -- sorry -- the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has already ruled the voter I.D. laws they are inherently racist. They -- African-Americans and Latino --</s>FERGUSON: That's not what the Fifth Circuit said.</s>FERGUSON: They didn't say it was racist.</s>PETKANAS: African-Americans and Latinos disproportionately have less access to or have fewer I.D.s required for voting. And so I think you hit the nail right on the head about what this is about. Voter I.D. laws are voter suppression laws. That's what this commission is about. And Ben made the point perfectly right there.</s>SANCHEZ: Ben, respond, quickly.</s>FERGUSON: The Fifth Circuit -- the Fifth Circuit did not say that. If you look at what the Fifth Circuit said, they did not talk about the racial side of things.</s>FERGUSON: I would encourage people to go look at what they actually said. But, again, I'll go back to one said --</s>FERGUSON: -- a moment ago. I'll go back to the point I made a moment ago. We don't ever call it racism to ask for an I.D. to put kids in school, to get government aid. No Democrat calls that racist. But somehow, showing I.D. is a racist thing in the country when you're going to vote.</s>FERGUSON: What we should be protecting.</s>SANCHEZ: We appreciate --</s>PETKANAS: We know better, Ben.</s>SANCHEZ: -- your reiterating that point. Ben Ferguson, Zac Petkanas, thank you, gentlemen, for the time. We will continue the debate soon, I'm sure. Coming up, as the Senate heads home for recess, Republicans will have a hard time defending their health care bill. We're going to take you to some rural hospitals, already struggling to stay open, to see how the proposed Medicaid cuts could affect them. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.