Ohio senator says exposing the last four digits of your Social Security number no big deal
Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) sees no problems with America's personally identifying information being online for anyone who wants it, he told CNN's Dana Bash on Wednesday.
Speaking on "Inside Politics," the former Ohio Secretary of State was challenged on whether he, as the state's former top elections official, would hand over voters' personal information, including Social Security numbers, to the federal government. Bash specifically asked whether Husted would have turned over such information to a Democratic president.
"Well, we don't hold people's Social Security numbers," Husted said about Ohio. "And the voter rolls are public information in our state. That information should be available to everyone. We always—."
The shocked Bash interrupted, "Okay with that, you trust the federal government as a Republican?"
"It's not a — it's not a this is not a secret," Husted claimed. "You know, the voter rolls are not something that's secret. Those are — it's public information."
"It's the information about the voters, the personal information," she explained.
"But that information is usually your name, your address, your date of birth, the last four digits of your Social Security number is oftentimes used, but not the [full] Social Security number. And your signature. That information in most places is, is public information that can be shared," the senator .
A document from the Office of Management Assessment (OMA) at the National Institutes of Health is a one-page summary of a mandatory privacy awareness course for federal staff. The flier explains at one point, "Last 4 digits of a Social Security number are personally identifiable."
"Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memorandum (M)-07-16, Safeguarding Against and Responding to the Breach of Personally Identifiable Information, defines PII as 'information which can be used to distinguish or trace an individual's identity, such as their name, social security number, biometric records, etc. alone, or when combined with other personal or identifying information,'" the flier continues.
When registering to vote, the Ohio Secretary of State application allows individuals to provide the last four digits of their Social Security number or the number from a "state ID card," such as a driver's license, to verify identity. Husted told Bash that in Ohio, they don't retain those numbers.
The same Ohio Secretary of State website says that a Social Security card is not an acceptable form of identification when voting. Neither is a birth certificate.
The debate over voter ID has been reignited amid Republicans' demand to pass restrictions on voting ahead of the midterm elections. The GOP is pushing the "SAVE Act," known as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act.
The SAVE ACT mandates that the only acceptable form of ID would be the so-called "Real ID," which is not free to obtain. Voting rights advocates equate this to a form of a poll tax, which is any fee required to vote in an election. That was outlawed in the 24th Amendment of the Constitution. There is currently no free national photo identification available for Americans that would be an acceptable form of ID to vote under the SAVE Act.
The Brennan Center for Justice published a report showing that "more than 21 million Americans lack ready access" to documents such as a passport or birth certificate, which are required to register to vote.
"Roughly half of Americans don’t even have a passport. Millions lack access to a paper copy of their birth certificate. The SAVE Act would disenfranchise Americans of all ages and races, but younger voters and voters of color would suffer disproportionately. Likewise, millions of women whose married names aren’t on their birth certificates or passports would face extra steps just to make their voices heard," the report said.
Many of the same people who support photo IDs to vote also say they support early voting, vote by mail, and automatic voter registration when you get a driver's license, Gallup showed. However, those are not included in the SAVE Act.
Republicans say that they support the SAVE Act because elections must be protected from illegal voters. The Brennan Center reported that voter fraud is extremely rare.
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