ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Protesters hit the sidewalk outside the Orange County Elections office Monday to complain about voter information being sent to a federal panel that's investigating claims of voter fraud following the 2016 November election.
[ Read: Trump signs executive order to create voter fraud panel ]
The protesters told Channel 9's Mike Manzoni that they worry their personal information might end up in the wrong hands.
"This is quite clearly a voter suppression, fact-finding mission," said Mitch Emerson, with For Our Future.
Emerson is concerned about the federal voting commission that is investigating President Donald Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2016 election.
The Trump administration wants voter information from all 50 states.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott said he’ll only hand over voter information that is already public record. That includes voters’ names, addresses, party affiliations and whether they voted in past elections. However, the records do not include information on how a person voted.
Gary Mogensen told Eyewitness News he still doesn’t feel any better about the request.
"We're very concerned about what they're actually going to do with this information,” Mogensen said.
The White House panel has also asked states to turn over the last four digits of voters' Social Security numbers.
Gov. Scott's office sent a letter to the commission last week that reminded the commission that the state already complies with public records, but that driver's license information or Social Security numbers would not be released because it would violate state statue. The state told the commission in the letter that it would not release any information that is exempt or confidential under Florida law.
One Orange County voter told Eyewitness News that he’s so upset, he took his name off the voter rolls Monday morning.
"I take voting very, very seriously. I vote every time there's an election," said David Porter. "I've been a voter since I was 18 years old. I'm 62 right now. I just had myself taken off the voter rolls so they won't be able to send my information to this stupid commission in Washington."
Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner released the following statement on the Commission's voter information request:
"As my letter stated last week, Florida will absolutely not provide any information that is not already available to the public.
"The security of Floridians' personal information is very important and that is why we will only be sharing information that is already public record. Once again, this information is already regularly given out to anyone who makes a public records request to the Department of State as required by Florida law. As my letter stated, the responsibility of the accuracy and fairness of our election process in Florida lies with us, not with the federal government in Washington D.C."
Read below the letter to Secretary Kobach:
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