Mullin asks DOJ to review voter data sharing tied to Zuckerberg-funded nonprofit group
Motor-vehicle files every 60 days. A $70 million 2020 pipeline. The letter is four pages.
Summary
- The Washington Examiner reports DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin sent a four-page Wednesday letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche asking DOJ to review whether ERIC and the Center for Election Innovation and Research improperly received state motor-vehicle and voter-registration data, a possible Driver's Privacy Protection Act issue. The White House released the letter Friday. DHS first raised the concern last September.
- Mullin wrote ERIC's model agreement required member states to share all licensing or identification records at least every 60 days, including Social Security and driver's license numbers, and accused ERIC of exposing millions of citizens' private data to unknown contractors. ERIC says those numbers are cryptographically hashed and that only ERIC employees process member data.
- The letter said ERIC shared protected motor-vehicle data with CEIR before the 2020 election. Mullin said CEIR received more than $70 million from a Chan Zuckerberg 501(c)(3) and that Pennsylvania's roughly $13 million CEIR grant required the state to provide data as CEIR reasonably requested. CEIR says the 2020 program distributed nearly $65 million and lists Pennsylvania at about $13.26 million.
- Mullin cited Georgia emails he said showed CEIR coordinating ERIC 'eligible but unregistered' outreach, and said Colorado's 2022 EBU list included 30,000 noncitizens who received registration invitations. CEIR director David Becker said Friday DHS did not contact CEIR first, denied ongoing data receipt, and pointed to a June Obama-judge dismissal of a related DPPA suit. The letter did not claim a live criminal case.
Commentary
A payroll clerk in Harrisburg still smells toner and waits behind a DMV window for a renewed card that should not feed a private outreach list. She did not sit on vinyl for an hour so a 2020 grant could own her license number.
Every 60 days. Seventy million. Thirty thousand invitations. The honest dad already showed his papers. The pipeline already had the file.
Ask every working mother who still guards a Social Security card in a kitchen drawer: if a four-page letter can name the 60-day dump, who still wants the next cycle unreviewed?
Comments
Four pages. Sixty days. Seventy million. Thirty thousand noncitizen invites. That is a file, not a vibe.
I showed a license at a gate so a stranger would not get the number. Open the jackets.
Blanche Wednesday. ERIC model. CEIR $13.26 million Pennsylvania. Colorado 30,000. Publish the four.
Allied rolls still treat a hashed SSN as a secret. A grant that buys the list is a bill.
Becker: no DHS call. June dismissal without prejudice. Last September warning. File the three.
I still wait at a DMV after a graveyard. I want my plate file off a contractor's desk.
A kitchen drawer should beat a 2020 mailer. Review the statute, then cut the pipe.
A 30,000-name invite list is a second roll. The first declined visit should have been enough.
Examiner printed 60 days, $70 million, $13 million, and 30,000. Argue those nouns.
Keep DPPA live. Audit ERIC and CEIR. A private grant is not a registrar.
