Yes, please. HIDE my voter information.

The president promised a commission to look into his allegation that there was rampant voter fraud in the 2016 election -- so much that he was denied a victory in the popular vote.

To that end, vice chairman of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity Kris Kobach sent a letter to all 50 states last Wednesday requesting "a bevy of voter data," including "registrants' full names, addresses, dates of birth, political parties, the last four digits of their social security numbers, a list of the elections they voted in since 2006, information on any felony convictions, information on whether they were registered to vote in other states, their military status, and whether they lived overseas." [Source]

If that list seems a bit intrusive of the federal government, rest assured that "we're not asking for it if it's not publicly available."

Well, that's a relief. But just in case, 44 states are refusing to give certain voter information.

In response, the president on July 1st tweeted, "Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?"

Well, call it a refusal to hand over personally identifiable information (what the Army likes to call PII), but I'm perfectly OK with that. In fact, I'd be more alarmed if my state *didn't* try to hide my PII.

At its core, the president's investigation committee is an effort to interfere with states' electoral processes, but for what end, I'm not sure. As Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe succinctly put it, "At best this commission was set up as a pretext to validate Donald Trump's alternative election facts, and at worst is a tool to commit large-scale voter suppression."

While I'm not particularly opposed to a federal effort to "tidy up the books" across the nation, I don't think the best way to begin the conversation with is with the president's racially charged suspicion that only the other side is guilty.