More in our first look tonight.
The president wants states to hand over voting records
in an effort to ferret out fraud that could undermine
the integrity of the federal elections process.
The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity
wants registration records, including names, addresses,
dates of birth, political party, last four digits of social
security numbers, voting history and more.
A number of states have said they will not comply.
What will Wisconsin do?
For that answer, we turn to Reid Magney of the Wisconsin
Elections Commission.
Thanks for being here. - You're welcome.
- As to that question, what will Wisconsin do?
- Under Wisconsin law, there are some things in a voter record
that are public: your name,
your address and the list of elections that you voted in.
But that's really all.
I mean, if you're a military or overseas voter,
that might be part of it.
But things like your date of birth,
your driver license number,
the last four digits of your social security number
are all confidential and we never give those out.
- Not even to the president. - That's not permitted.
We can give them to law enforcement,
but this commission doesn't qualify as law enforcement.
- So just to be clear, those things from Wisconsin will not
be submitted to this commission.
- We're not permitted to give that out under state law.
- But you will give out all that is public
under Wisconsin law.
- Well, they can buy the list from us if they want.
Wisconsin, in Wisconsin, we charge for that information.
It helps pay for the system, lessens the burden on taxpayers.
The cost of that list is $12,500.
So we are going to respond to them
and say here's how you can get the list.
Give us your credit card if you want it.
- Have you gotten any response to that?
Because I know that that was put out there before,
that that was Wisconsin's response,
that you can buy it if you want it.
- We haven't had any interaction with them.
We just got the letter from them on Wednesday.
It went to the Secretary of State's office
instead of the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
And we're working on a response. We should have one next week.
- But you think that's what it's going to be.
- Oh, yes. Absolutely.
We're going to let them know that
if they want the list, they need to buy it.
- Now, what do you say about concerns
that the information submitted to this commission will be used
to lay the groundwork for voter suppression?
- One of the things that we've learned about using the list
is that you need a lot of detailed information,
like things like dates of birth and social security numbers
and driver license numbers, to be able to do list matching.
I think people are afraid that this list
will be matched against other lists.
The list in its current form with a person's name,
address and voting history may not--
you don't get much out of having that other than
a list of here are the names of people who are registered.
But in terms of matching it with things in other states
or other databases, it may not be of much use.
- Have you ever seen a request like this
from the federal government? - No.
- And what do you make of it?
- I think that they're looking for information.
They're trying to put together some sort of--
something to be able to look at the nation's voters, you know.
It's not really our job to look at the motivation.
That's one of the things in Wisconsin's public records law.
You don't look at the motivation for a request.
If you can fulfill it, you do.
And in this case, we can, but if they pay.
- As for concerns about the integrity of the elections
process having to do with fraud or impersonation,
how concerned are we about that in Wisconsin?
- Voter impersonation is extremely rare in Wisconsin.
It was before the voter ID law went into effect and it
continues to be very small now.
It is not-- It's not a major concern.
- There was suggestion at recent Washington hearings
that Russian hackers targeted voter registration records
in the 2016 elections.
Did that happen, to your knowledge, in Wisconsin?
- Not at all.
It happened in Illinois and it happened in Arizona.
And there were some separate attempts to infiltrate
a vendor who works in Florida and some other states.
We don't do business with that vendor.
Most of the voter list maintenance is really done
by clerks and state workers.
We don't have vendors who do that work for us.
- So Russian hackers didn't get into our election process.
- No, they did not.
- And did you ever in your wildest imagination think
that you would be talking about Russian hackers?
- I did not.
- And we -- you believe, again, though,
that Wisconsin kind of was impervious to any of that
because of the way we're set up so decentralized?
- Yes. You're right.
We have a very decentralized system in Wisconsin,
the most decentralized in the country.
We have 1,852 municipal clerks who maintain the local lists
in a system that is set up by the state.
And we have detected no problems.
- All right.
Well, we'll be looking for the letter that comes out
of your office to this commission in coming days.
- Thank you. - Reid Magney, thanks a lot.