Trump Questions States, Minnesota Included, On Not Releasing Voter Info

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – President Donald Trump was busy on Twitter on Sunday, with one tweet responding to an inquiry for states to release voter information.

Trump tweeted, "Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?"

WCCO's Jeff Wagner looked into this, Minnesota being one of those states not giving out the information. Minnesota is one of more than 20 states refusing to turn over voter data to President Trump's Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.

Secretary of State Steve Simon worries the investigation wouldn't be objective. But others say not participating shows an unwillingness to be transparent.

"Minnesota's election system is very complex," Andy Cilek, the executive director of the Minnesota Voters Alliance, said.

Andy Cilek has learned that over years working as the executive director of the Minnesota Voters Alliance.

"Our goal is to suppress illegal voting. We don't want illegal voting," Cilek said.

Which according to President Donald Trump, totaled in the millions in the last election, preventing him from winning the popular vote. While Cilek believes the number is significantly lower.

"Would I say hundreds of thousands? Yes," Cilek said.

Cilek said he thinks it's wrong that Minnesota Secretary of State Scott Simon won't fully cooperate with President's Voter Fraud panel.

"Which to me clearly shows that he has no interest in transparency, no interest in election integrity, no interest in election results that are credible," Cilek said.

Or as President Trump said in his tweet, "What are they trying to hide?"

The data the commission requested includes voter's names, their voting history, felony convictions and more. Secretary of State Simon isn't comfortable giving that up to the panel, led in part by Vice President Mike Pence.

"These folks are leading the inquiry, it doesn't give me much confidence in the outcome being fair. It seems predetermined and precooked," said Simon.

Simon said nearly three million Minnesotans voted in the last election and to date, there have only been 16 cases of possible voter fraud. In his eyes, there's a much larger threat to the election system.

"It has to do with cyber security, it has to do with attacks on our system, on the technological integrity of our system from outside of Minnesota and even outside of the country and maybe even from national states, from governments," Simon said.

According to data compiled by the Minnesota Voters Alliance, 370 Minnesotans were convicted of voter fraud involving elections from 2008 to 2014.