Secretary Murray Agrees with Trump Decision Dissolving Election Commission

Press Release– Secretary of State Ed Murray applauded President Trump’s Executive Order to dissolve the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. In July 2017, Secretary Murray rejected a request by that Commission for Wyoming voter data containing personal information of Wyoming’s voters. Murray was one of the first Republican Secretaries of State to oppose Trump’s request for voter information.

“I was pleased that President Trump signed an Executive Order on Wednesday dissolving the Commission. The Commission never clearly stated its purpose or provided any concrete explanation for why it was requesting private voter data. I’m a lifelong Republican, but President Trump’s creation of the Commission didn’t sit well with me from the get go. It doesn’t matter who the president is, I am going to safeguard the privacy of Wyoming’s voters from any federal overreach because of my strong belief in a citizen’s right to privacy,” said Secretary Murray.

Secretary Murray has also expressed concern that the creation of the Commission was a federal overreach into a matter of state sovereignty. At the National Association of Secretaries of State’s 2017 summer conference, where Murray serves as the Western Region Vice-President, Murray supported a bi-partisan resolution reaffirming all Secretaries of State’s commitment to state sovereignty. The resolution emphasized that “…states are responsible for protecting the integrity of their elections including the secrecy of the ballot, security of their election infrastructures, and sensitive personal information included in the states’ voter rolls…”

“The election process is a matter of state sovereignty. I am proud that the 2016 Election in Wyoming was conducted accurately, securely, and with integrity. Every individual voter can be assured that the vote they cast was counted and that it went for the candidate for whom they voted. I support any efforts to ensure the same essential guarantee of election integrity that we have in Wyoming exists across the nation, but not at the expense of citizen privacy, or at the risk of federal overreach,” stated Murray.