Pennsylvania election official responds as DOJ sues state to obtain voter data
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PBS NewsHour
4.1 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 23 October 2025
⏱️ 7 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | President Trump has continued to perpetuate the lie that the 2020 presidential election was rigged in favor of Joe Biden, |
| 0:07.7 | posting on his social media platform just last night that it was, quote, an illegal scam slash hoax. |
| 0:14.1 | Since he re-entered the White House, the president has suggested his administration will crack down on mail ballots. |
| 0:19.5 | And as Liz Landers reports, |
| 0:21.3 | take a closer look at state voting systems ahead of next year's midterm elections. |
| 0:27.0 | Last month, the Justice Department sued Pennsylvania and seven other states for refusing to |
| 0:32.2 | turn over personal voter data in their statewide voter registration lists. |
| 0:37.1 | Joining me now is Al Schmidt, the Pennsylvania |
| 0:38.9 | Secretary of the Commonwealth, who is the state's top election official. Mr. Secretary, the voter |
| 0:44.5 | list that the Department of Justice is suing to get from you all, include information like date |
| 0:49.4 | of birth and the last four digits of social security numbers. You have offered to give the Department of Justice publicly available voter files. |
| 0:58.0 | Why won't you turn over this additional information that they're asking for? |
| 1:02.7 | The Department of Justice is welcome to the public information that we make available, |
| 1:08.1 | according to the Pennsylvania laws, for our 8.8 million registered voters. What we |
| 1:14.0 | will not provide is the Social Security numbers or driver's license numbers, and that's |
| 1:19.8 | because it's at odds with state law, it's at odds with federal law, and it's at odds with |
| 1:24.8 | our Constitution here in Pennsylvania. What are your concerns with turning over that kind of voter information? |
| 1:32.0 | What could happen with that that you're worried about? |
| 1:35.0 | Well, it's very sensitive information, and I do a lot of events all over the Commonwealth |
| 1:40.0 | of Pennsylvania. |
| 1:41.0 | And one thing that I've heard from Democrats and Republicans alike |
| 1:44.9 | is a gratitude for not providing all the sensitive information to the federal government, |
... |
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