NH Secretary of State Bill Gardner responds to the question on everyone’s mind: Will the Trump Administration – or Trump Organization –use the extensive personal voter data requested by Trump’s ‘Election Integrity Commission’?

CONCORD, NH – This afternoon NH Secretary of State and ‘Election Integrity Commission’ member Bill Gardner was asked the question on everyone’s mind: could he guarantee President Trump wouldn’t use the national vote database in any way, shape, or form? The exchange:

GSP Video: Trump Election Commission Member Asked Whether Trump Will Use Personal Voter Database for Own Purposes

Video Transcript, July 6, 2017, NH Secretary of State’s Office

Granite Stater: My follow-on question is, can you guarantee the current administration won’t be using that database in any way, shape, or form?

[Long Pause]

NH SOS Bill Gardner: “We’ll have these discussions when there’s the first meeting.”

Mo Baxley of Laconia, NH: “And you won’t turn over the information until those conversations.”

NH SOS Bill Gardner: “I want to make sure that this is not in the public domain, and what the guarantees are for that, and I expect that that is the case, and before it gets turned over, I will make sure that I’m satisfied that, that, that’s the case.”

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GSP Video: Trump Election Commission Member Asked a Second Time Whether Trump Will Use Personal Voter Database for Own Uses

Granite Stater: “Once that information is gathered – you still couldn’t answer my question, sir, about where’s the guarantee and where’s our confidence level that the current administration will not use that national database for something? That’s of great concern to me. I agree with what you said, it may be nothing nefarious, it’s all good, we’re going to get a good outcome from it, but that data is now centralized and available to the current administration. What are they going to do with it? And you don’t have an answer to it, and that is my great concern. And that is a question I hope you will ask, and then report back to us with the answer, because they cannot have a centralized database with everybody’s information on it. My great concern is that.”

Mo Baxley of Laconia: “I’m less concerned with this administration than I am with the Russian administration, quite frankly. Thanks, Bill [Gardner].”

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Statement from Granite State Progress Executive Director Zandra Rice Hawkins: “The next commission meeting should include a public and thorough conversation about who will have access to personal voter data, how it will be used, and what the commission will do to safeguard a national voter database from special interests, domestic and foreign. Americans should be able to have confidence that this commission will not further jeopardize our elections and thus the commission should first outline its objectives and strategies before casting a wide net for voter data, especially when security experts have stated that the process selected is shaky and unsecure and puts individual voters at risk.”

Media outlets may request the entire video by emailing zandra@granitestateprogress.org with a FTP site.

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Granite State Progress is a progressive advocacy organization that addresses issues of immediate state and local concern. Granite State Progress works as a communications hub for the progressive community to provide a strong, credible voice in advancing progressive solutions to critical community problems. Press releases online at www.GraniteStateProgress.org.