A CBS4 story manages to mangle the facts of a voter fraud investigation to make it appear President Trump is demanding the personal information of Coloradans and voters in other states, but that officials are standing strong and refusing to comply.
Here’s how they report it:
Colorado Joins Other States, Refuses To Turn Over Private Voter Information
DENVER (CBS4)– Colorado has joined more than 20 other states in refusing to turn over sensitive information as part of President Donald Trump’s voter fraud commission investigation.
In addition to names and addresses, the administration wants Social Security numbers and voting history for the last 10 years.
“My office is going to protect the confidentiality of things that are confidential under state law,” said (Wayne) Williams.
What Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams actually said in his own news release is the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity asked for “publicly-available roll data,” not confidential information, to analyze vulnerabilities and issues relating to voter histories.
“We will provide publicly available information on the voter file, which is all they have asked for,” Williams said.
State law requires the office to provide a copy of the voter registration list upon request. The publicly available list includes the full name, address, year of birth, political party and vote history of persons registered to vote in the state. It does not contain personally identifiable information such as Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, or full dates of birth — and that information will be withheld from the commission.
Big difference, eh?
The commission did not demand Social Security numbers, it asked that the last four digits be included in their request, “if available” with all the other information that is public.
We found the press release written by Lynn Bartels for Williams fairly straight forward and easy to understand.
It goes on to say the commission wants recommendations from the Secretaries of State on how to address technology vulnerabilities and protect all voters from disenfranchisement.
“We are very glad they are asking for information before making decisions,” Williams said. “I wish more federal agencies would ask folks for their opinion and for information before they made decisions.”
The tone and intent of the original news release from Williams and resulting report from CBS4 are different in that the press release states facts, while the TV report is just another weak attempt to slam Trump.
Judge for yourself.