The Head of Trump’s Voter-Fraud Commission Accidentally Leaked a Bunch of Social Security Numbers

Oops. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The office of Kansas secretary of State Kris Kobach left thousands of state workers vulnerable to identity theft by publicly listing the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, Gizmodo reports. After discovering the vulnerable data, Gizmodo alerted Kobach’s office, which removed it within an hour.

“Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach does not believe that the last four of a person’s social security number should be part of this publicly available information,” spokesperson Samantha Poetter told the Kansas City Star. “Secretary Kobach has taken all statements off of the office website.”

The documents that led to the leaked data are known as “statements of substantial interests” and are required of many state workers. Among the fields on the form is one asking for the last four digits of the Social Security number, which is there to differentiate between people with the same name.

Kobach, who led the Trump administration’s unnecessary commission on voter fraud, has a history of mishandling sensitive information. Last year, his program designed to ferret out voter fraud was putting “millions of people’s information at risk,” according to ProPublica. And the year before that, he forgot the cover page on a strategic plan he was about to present to President-elect Trump, exposing much of it to the prying lenses of press photographers.

Trump’s Voter-Fraud Commission Head Leaked a Bunch of SSNs