Ashcroft dispels misinformation on Election Integrity

Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft issued the following statement today.

“In its letter, the Commission on Election Integrity asked specifically for ‘publicly available’ information. We are treating this request as an open records request under Chapter 610, RSMo, commonly known in Missouri as the sunshine law, and we are required to respond. Just like the majority of states, we will provide only public information to respond to this request. This is required by Chapter 115.157, RSMo, which outlines the data that is open to the public.

“In Missouri, there is no means or mechanism to track how a person voted or a voter’s political party affiliation. To be clear, no voter’s social security number (full or partial), driver license number, active/inactive status, cancelled status, information regarding any felony convictions, information regarding voter registration in another state, information regarding military status and overseas citizen information is available to the public and we will not provide it to the commission.

“When I ran for this office, I may have had an ‘R’ next to my name, but now as your elected Secretary of State, I assure you I will always equally apply the law whether I agree or disagree. For decades, the elected officials serving in this Office have shared this data and this Office will continue that practice.”