Voter fraud commission may have violated law

BY LYDIA WHEELER AND MIKE LILLIS - 07/05/17 06:07 PM EDT

President Trump’s voter fraud commission may have violated the law by ignoring federal requirements governing requests for information from states.

The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity asked all 50 states for extensive information last week on their voters, including full names and addresses, political party registration and the last four digits of Social Security numbers.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Under the Paperwork Reduction Act, information requests from agencies and other federal entities are supposed to first be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).

This 1980 law requires federal agencies to seek public input, including through a comment period, before a request for information. A 1995 amendment extended OIRA’s authority to include not only requests for information for the government, but also requests for information to the public.

The law also requires that agencies justify their requests for public information, specify how it will be used and provide assurances that data will be protected. The law also obliges the agencies to estimate how many hours it will take entities to respond.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]