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The White House Doxxed People Who Submitted Comments On Election Integrity

Madison Medeiros
July 16, 2017, 11:15 PM
The White House just did something that's making people all over the country angry and it doesn't have to do with Russia.
You may recall a month ago when the White House's Election Integrity Commission asked all 50 states to hand over sensitive voter information — names, party affiliation, the last four digits of Social Security numbers, voting history, etc. — in an effort to uncover alleged voter fraud and to examine voter behavior. As The Washington Post reports, the White House later stated that the provided voter information would become accessible to anyone.
Many states elected not to share voter information, but that didn't stop people from writing to voice their complaints.
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People from all over the country emailed the Commission, which was established after Trump proclaimed there was massive voter fraud during the 2016 election, complaining about the odd ask, not thinking that the government would retaliate. Unfortunately, last Thursday, the White House released those emails — all 112 pages of them — to the public. During the email dump, the White House also published highly personal information such as addresses, phone numbers, and emails.
Some of the emails read: "DO NOT RELEASE ANY OF MY VOTER DATA PERIOD," "The request for private voter information is offensive," "Many people will get their identity stolen, which will harm the economy," and "I removed my name from voter rolls," according to The Washington Post.
As Vox points out, "the White House did this when the thing citizens were complaining about was the possibility that their private information would be made public." At this time, it's not clear whether voters knew their information would be released, though Vox reports that the Commission's website now states the following: "Please note that the Commission may post such written comments publicly on our website, including names and contact information that are submitted."
Since the information became public, thousands of voters have unregistered. Though the reason for their withdrawal is most likely because they don't want their personal data out in the open, some conservatives are arguing that the move implies those voters have something to hide.
Reactions to the information release have been mixed:
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