Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., told MS NOW that Americans must be prepared to “seize back our democracy” after a whistleblower alleged that employees inside the Department of Homeland Security had been asked to access sensitive information amid Donald Trump’s attempted crackdown on voting ahead of the midterms.
According to the report provided to Padilla and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, “The Whistleblower has reason to believe that, with the knowledge and at the direction of leadership at headquarters, the Unlawful Voter Initiative has potentially already committed thousands of violations of state law in an effort to improperly access individuals’ voter records.”
The whistleblower alleged that federal agents had been submitting personally identifiable information, or PII, into public-facing state websites to review individuals’ voting history, despite some of those states requiring attestations that the person trying to access that data is either the voter or acting with authorization on behalf of the voter.
On Monday’s “The Weeknight,” Padilla thanked the federal employee for having the “integrity and courage to come forward to blow the whistle on what is clearly unlawful.” The California Democrat called the reported behavior a “violation of state privacy laws.”
“These systems are designed to allow a voter to check their own data, not somebody else’s,” he explained, before using MS NOW’s Eugene Daniels as an example. “So Alex Padilla can check Alex Padilla’s registration status. Alex Padilla can’t check Eugene’s. Only Eugene can check Eugene’s.”
“So when officers raise that question, ‘Are we sure this is kosher? Is this legal?,’ they’re being told, ‘Don’t worry about it,’” Padilla added.
While the senator said he and his fellow lawmakers should do “everything we can all day, every day” to stop Trump’s meddling in the election, he called the whistleblower report a “call to action” for voters ahead of November. “It’s not just what may or may not happen on Election Day, [it’s about] what’s happening between now and Election Day, on Election Day, and after Election Day,” he told MS NOW.
“Verify your registration status legitimately. Make your plan to vote by mail, in person on Election Day, or early. Make sure every family member, every friend, every co-worker, every neighbor does the same, and let’s seize back our democracy,” he said.
You can watch Padilla’s full interview in the clip at the top of the page.
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