Cynthia NighThank goodness you are my representative! A voice for reason and tolerance that is too seldom heard these days.

Karla LesterWe need to start calling dreamers, Americans!

Jayne SebbyThank you! So pleased to see your name on this letter.

Margo YoungThank goodness for senators willing to take the moral high ground!

Vincent LitwinowiczThis is nothing more than supporting evidence that all is not lost

Barbara Johnson FrankSo grateful for these strong voices for justice

Mary Lou Marsh MeierThank you, senator!

Rebecca PfabeThank you!!!

Michele LangerThank you!

Marcia CederdahlThank you!!

Juancho PalaciosSaw this yesterday

Carlos PalaciosSorry!!! Sheesh

Carlos PalaciosYecenia Luna Juancho Palacios

Suzanne Peterson SughroueState Senator Patty Pansing Brooks, I keep calling and writing my elected representatives about numerous issues and it feels like my comments fall on deaf ears. What more can we be doing to make a change? I am so frustrated and upset by our elected officials.

4 Replies

Emily LevineHere's my email: Dear Secretary of State John A. Gale I am writing to express my concerns about President Donald Trump's Advisory Commission on Election Integrity's request for voter information. 1. Complying with this request will lend legitimacy to the President's claim of voter fraud---specifically that 3 million people voted illegally in the 2016 election. No one except the President makes or accepts this claim. The claim is reckless and dangerous because it can lead people to needlessly worry about the integrity of our elections. The claim is also a lie. 2. There is NO legitimate basis for this request. Its only purpose--beyond calling into doubt the legitimacy of our elected officials--is as a basis for voter disenfranchisement and suppression. Such activity strikes at the basis of the foundation of our free and open democracy. It is the most unAmerican activity that can be undertaken and its direction is now coming from the White House. 3. The Commission's vice chairman, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, is rightly notorious for his efforts in Kansas to suppress the vote of that state's citizens. He is an extremist. For all of the taxpayer dollars he has wasted, Secretary Kobach has only successfully prosecuted nine cases of voter fraud in Kansas since he took office six years ago (KC Star, 5/11/2017). This, out of millions of votes cast. The most recent case involved a man who was registered to vote in two states. You may recall that the following people in Trump's inner circle were also registered to vote in two states (NYT, 1/27/2017): Steve Bannon, chief strategist Tiffany Trump, daughter of the President Steve Mnuchin, Secretary of the Treasury, predatory lender Sean Spicer, Press Secretary Jared Kushner, son-in-law, senior advisor, Mid-East envoy, head of the Office of American Innovation, etc. During his first week in office, the President often repeated the lie that between three to five million people had voted illegally. On Jan. 25, 2016, he tweeted, "I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and…." Perhaps the President and Sec. Kobach should begin with this list of the "inner circle." Although they should also know that it is not illegal to be registered to vote in two states. 4. Recently joining the Commission is Hans von Spakovsky, a former Justice Dept. official who is also well-known as a polarizing figure for making false claims of voter fraud. “'I think there are number of people who have been active in promoting false and exaggerated claims of voter fraud and using that as a pretext to argue for stricter voting and registration rules,' said Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California at Irvine. 'And von Spakovsky’s at the top of the list.'” Vanita Gupta, former head of the Justice Depatment's Civil Right's Division, finds von Spakovsky’s appointment "deeply alarming" and has stated: "'Kris Kobach and Hans von Spakovsky have had a single-minded agenda to diminish voter participation and to fight voting rights, and to make voting harder. . . . I think you just cannot ignore the composition of the folks on this commission.'” (Both quotes from NYT, 6/30/2017). 5. There has never been any widespread voter fraud in modern times. Claims that there have been are a dangerous ruse. There have been increasing instances and a concerted coordinated effort to affect elections through gerrymandering, voter intimidation, distribution of false information for voters, the closing of polling places, lack of voting machines, etc. All of these actions have been undertaken by various Republican entities and individuals to suppress the votes of minorities, young people, and others thought to vote more heavily Democratic. These action have been increasingly successfully challenged in the courts. 6. It is clear that the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity is the unholy marriage between our President's inability, for whatever reason, to accept that he lost the popular vote by over three million votes (or that he accepts the truth and is simply lying) and the ongoing anti-Democratic and anti-democratic efforts at voter suppression which use false claims of voter fraud to advance their agenda. An agenda that is an affront to our founding fathers, and to those who lost their lives fighting for the country and for voting rights. 7. There was a serious issue with our 2016 presidential election. Through our intelligence agencies and House and Senate investigations, we are beginning to learn the full extent of the Russian attack on the most precious bedrock of our democracy: free and fair elections. The Vote stands as an almost scared institution, its fundamental nature is so revered. That it could be perverted by an antagonist foreign power is cause for alarm--and action. Yet the administration of Donald Trump is doing nothing to combat this ongoing threat. Instead, it has created a Commission with the Orwellian "doublespeak" name of "Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity." On the eve of Independence Day, I ask you to please do not give credence to the President's claim of three million illegally cast votes. Please do not do anything to take our eyes off the real threat to our democratic elections--the Russian government, please do not give an unprecedented level of power to voter suppression zealots. Please do not accede to the Commission's request for our state's voter information. Sincerely, Emily Levine Independent Scholar ------- Street Lincoln, NE --------

Kathy Neumann McKillipThank you! Thanks for being my Senator and representing District 28 and Nebraska! Mean spirited politics seems to becoming the norm in all areas of government.

Bob KannI wrote email to him but no reply. I pointed out that not only is this a potential security risk but the 10th amendment gives states the power to hold elections. Handing over voter rolls to the fed to produce a voter database is in violation of this amendment!

Jon HinrichsIt is interesting that the Republican Party campaigns on the issue of too much government control but this isright out of "1984" by Orwell

Judy Micke RoweNot excited to have our personal info shared. I hope they do what is right for the people

Rick PaulBesides, what good is this data if many states are not releasing it?

Judith H Johnsonhave written, called and message sent...

Beth SachtjenThank you, Patty. We want a NO from Gale.

Nancy Posvar GreenNo way!

Jenny Ross CardwellAgreed! Thank you!

Kristie PfabeThank you!

Wanda HamiltonIt didn't do any good. They decided to give our private information over for purely political reasons. That is, their political benefit. I registered and gave my information to them with the unspoken expectation they would hold it close and keep it safe. Nothing, is safe with this administration, and this lousely GOP bootlicker of a govenor and SOS. Personally I believe the information will be used to do more Gerrymandering and insure more of these 'things' elected.

Bob HinrichsGale's name is mud now. He's got the Trump Taint and it won't wear off.

Ruby ThelanderAgreed! An underhanded trick, But we shouldn't be surprised that they would try this!

John Blade WiederspanIf one is found, pass it on to the rest of the nation. There's a lot of ash trees.

Becky RaymondWhat a fabulous idea.

Lisa FrickeCould make baseball bats! 😊⚾️

Nancy Posvar GreenPatty, I think you are the hardest working senator I have seen in my 64 years. So proud to stand with you as often as I can. I will verbally support you if not physically present. Prayers also included!