Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes says President Donald Trump's newly-formed election commission is prefaced on baseless claims about voter fraud, and she won't send it information about Kentucky voters.
Trump set up the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity to look into his claims that millions of people illegally cast ballots in the 2016 election.
Grimes said Trump is using the commission to support his claim that voter fraud lost him the popular vote in last year's presidential election.
“I think next you have to realize the reason this commission was created was to try to formulate some sort of background and basis, authority for a lie," she said.
Trump alleges that three to five million votes were illegally cast in the election--a claim widely debunked by election officials.
The commission asked secretaries of state to provide names, addresses, birth dates, party affiliations and last four digits of social security numbers belonging to registered voters in each state.
So far, 29 states have refused to comply with the commission's request for voter data.
“What we’re looking at best is a waste of taxpayer money and at worst an attempt across the entire United States to legitimize voter suppression efforts," Grimes said. "And that’s something as secretary of state I’m not going to be a part of”
On Saturday the president tweetedout his disapproval of state officials that have refused to share voter data, questioning "What are they trying to hide?"
Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 1, 2017
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Trump lost the popular vote in last year’s presidential election by about 2.9 million votes.
