President Trump's obsession with voter fraud is a continuation of not winning the popular vote over Hillary Clinton. After winning the 2016 presidential election, the popular vote became a central issue with the Donald, an issue that would evolve into crowd size at his inauguration and to eventually create a commission that would investigate voter fraud. This commission has been under fire for reportedly asked that all states submit voter data to them which includes social security numbers, addresses, names and who voters have voted for.

Requesting voter data

Needless to say, many states have pushed back against the request but some Republican-led states that have an interest in getting as much leverage as possible to keep winning elections, are reportedly submitting to the request such as Texas. The White House told the Texas Tribune in an article titled: "Hey Texplainer: is Texas handing over my voting data to the federal government," that they were requesting the information because they wanted to make sure the integrity of elections were preserved. This assumes that they have evidence to back up their claim that millions of illegal citizens voted which they have yet to produce. Nonetheless, the effort serves to help the administration throw roadblocks up in time for the next election for which Donald Trump has already been raising money, reportedly, since the inauguration.

Determining what is 'public' information

That the Texas state government said they would send public data to the commission is centered around the request of one of the chairs of the commission, Kris Kobach, who said they want the information "if it is publicly available" under state law. To be fair, some Republican-led states have joined in to oppose the request for which President Trump had a response for all states opposing him saying that it was a sign that they were hiding something.

But the Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos has said that he would treat the request as one that is made to obtain standard public information, saying that they want to preserve the integrity of the election system but would protect sensitive information.

Though it is still unknown just what that public information could be.

One reason suggesting that Texas will do what it can to submit to the commission's request is that Texas Governor Greg Abbott has already submitted to enforcing a crackdown on the state's sanctuary cities, something that would make President Trump proud. It's likely that the reason for his actions is that the President's agenda to go after those cities through the Department of Justice was stalled by Congress. Currently, the Pablos' agency is apparently combing through the data to see what is public and what isn't.