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Also see: Voting Rights Act;
Jump to: 2016; 2017; 2018;
Undated: The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity (PEIC or PACEI), also called the Voter Fraud Commission, was a Presidential Commission established by Donald Trump that ran from May 11, 2017 to January 3, 2018.[1][2] The Trump administration said the commission would review claims of voter fraud, improper registration, and voter suppression.[3] The establishment of the commission followed through on previous discredited claims by Trump that millions of illegal immigrants had voted in the 2016 United States presidential election, costing him the popular vote.[4] Vice President Mike Pence served as chair of the commission, while Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach served as vice chair and day-to-day administrator.
On June 28, 2017 Kobach wrote a letter in conjunction with the Department of Justice requesting personal voter information from every state.[5] The request was met with significant bipartisan backlash and a majority of states refused to supply some or all of the information, citing privacy concerns or state laws.[6][7]
Trump's creation of the commission was criticized by voting rights advocates, scholars and experts, and newspaper editorial boards as a pretext for, and prelude to, voter suppression.[8][9][10][11][12]
On January 3, 2018, the commission was disbanded by Trump, with a statement from the White House blaming many states' refusal to turn over information as well as legal disputes.[13][14] At that time Trump asked that the investigation be transferred to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which already holds much of the requested state voter data and oversees immigration records.[15] The acting DHS press secretary said that Kobach would not be advising or working with DHS, and the White House said it would destroy all the state voter data collected by the Commission.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Advisory_Commission_on_Election_Integrity
-- 2016 --
June 29: In covering a story, a media outlet is not finding guilt. It is simply reporting the news that [for example] a lawsuit has been filed against Mr. Trump, and ideally putting the complaint in context. Unproven allegations are just that - unproven, and should be identified that way. ... Proof comes later, at trial. But the November election will come well before any trial. And while Mr. Trump is presumed innocent, we are permitted — no, we are obligated — to analyze [a] case’s viability ....
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-bloom/why-the-new-child-rape-ca_b_10619944.html
-- 2017 --
May 11: ... President Trump signed an executive order creating the “Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.” Vice President Pence chairs the Commission with Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a notorious advocate of voter suppression laws. Members include other arch voting rights foes: Hans von Spakovsky and Ken Blackwell. Even before the Commission’s first meeting, Kobach sent letters to all 50 states and the District of Columbia asking for detailed records on every voter in their state. By July 5, at least 44 states had declared that they would not, or could not by law, provide the Commission with all the information requested.
http://www.pfaw.org/report/trumps-election-integrity-commission-the-lies-and-the-cold-hard-facts/
July 1: The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity was set up, ostensibly, to look into the possibility of vote fraud and the integrity of the system more generally. Vice President Mike Pence chairs the commission, which has four Democratic members so far.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/30/politics/kris-kobach-voter-commission-rolls/index.html
July 1: [Spokesman Marc Lotter] ... "It's just requesting public information. ... As the President's executive order says, the commission is going to look at issues that could cause fraudulent or not-current voter registration, which could lead to improper voting, as part of a holistic look at the election systems and what can be done to maintain the integrity but also in some cases strengthen the integrity and security of that information moving forward."
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/30/politics/kris-kobach-voter-commission-rolls/index.html
July 1: A Trump administration letter requesting data from all 50 state's voting rolls has put some states and voting rights advocates on edge after many were already wary of the aims of the President's commission on voting.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/30/politics/kris-kobach-voter-commission-rolls/index.html
July 1: Secretary of State Kris Kobach, sent a letter to each state Wednesday asking a series of questions soliciting feedback about election administration, voter fraud and the integrity of the process ... Kobach also requested that each state provide "publicly available voter roll data" as allowed under each state's laws, which could include full names of registered voters, dates of birth, party registration, last four digits of Social Security numbers and voting history.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/30/politics/kris-kobach-voter-commission-rolls/index.html
July 1: The Connecticut secretary of state, Democrat Denise Merrill, said she would share information that is publicly available "in the spirit of transparency," while also protecting private voter information. But she also criticized Kobach's track record and expressed concern in an ulterior motive.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/30/politics/kris-kobach-voter-commission-rolls/index.html
July 1: "In the same spirit of transparency, we will request that the Commission share any memos, meeting minutes or additional information as state officials have not been told precisely what the Commission is looking for," Denise Merrill said. "This lack of openness is all the more concerning, considering that the Vice Chair of the Commission, Kris Kobach, has a lengthy record of illegally disenfranchising eligible voters in Kansas."
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/30/politics/kris-kobach-voter-commission-rolls/index.html
On Twitter: Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?
July 1:
@realDonaldTrump
July 1: Trump has repeatedly discussed ... voter fraud as a large scale problem. He has made debunked and unsubstantiated claims about millions of illegal votes in the 2016 election.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/30/politics/kris-kobach-voter-commission-rolls/index.html
July 6: The Secret Goal of Trump’s Voting Commission
It is seeking to gut the Motor Voter Act.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/07/the_secret_goal_of_trump_s_voting_commission_is_to_gut_the_motor_voter_act.html
July 18: Kobach Email Confirms Trump Administration’s Goal to Gut Vital Voting Rights Law
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/07/18/kobach_email_confirms_goal_of_voter_fraud_commission_to_gut_nvra.html
July 24: A federal judge in DC declined to block President Donald Trump's voter integrity commission from collecting data on voters from 50 states in a ruling on Monday
http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/24/politics/judge-denies-restraining-order-on-voter-data/index.html
July 24: Former US attorney general Eric Holder on Monday assailed President Donald Trump's voting commission and unsubstantiated claim that voter fraud is widespread, calling the commission "another frightening attempt to suppress the votes of certain Americans."
"The creation of this new federal commission on election integrity by this administration is another frightening attempt to suppress the votes of certain Americans," Holder told attendees of the NAACP National Convention in Baltimore. "Make no mistake, this commission, led by a fact-challenged zealot, will come up with bogus reasons why further restrictions should be placed on the right to vote."
http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/24/politics/eric-holder-voter-rights/index.html
July 24: ... the commission on voter integrity is led by Kris Kobach, the Kansas Secretary of State who is an advocate for tougher voting restrictions. Four Democratic lawmakers last week wrote to Vice President Mike Pence requesting that Kobach be removed from the commission.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/24/politics/eric-holder-voter-rights/index.html
July 24: Former attorney general Eric Holder ... pushed back at the President's oft-repeated claim that 3 million to 5 million people may have voted illegally in the 2016 election, suggesting that it is more likely that a person would be struck by lightening than that they would impersonate another person at the polls.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/24/politics/eric-holder-voter-rights/index.html
July 24: A federal judge in DC declined to block President Donald Trump's voter integrity commission from collecting data on voters from 50 states in a ruling on Monday
http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/24/politics/judge-denies-restraining-order-on-voter-data/index.html
September 11: Donald Trump's Election Integrity Commission Is Still an Embarrassing Sham
But that sure isn't slowing them down.
https://www.gq.com/story/trump-election-commission-sham
September 17: Trump's 'election integrity' group is waging war on the right to vote
The president’s commission lead by Kris Kobach, a champion of repressive voting laws, could do significant damage to hard-won voting rights
After a decade of wrangling between Democrats who have sought to expand voting opportunities and Republicans who have invoked the specter of voter fraud to restrict them, the focus is now on purging registration lists – even at the risk of kicking large numbers of eligible voters off the rolls.
Both Trump’s justice department and his newly formed Presidential Commission on Election Integrity are involved in broad data collection and new policy proposals to “clean up” the voter rolls in ways that critics fear will have a disproportionate impact on blacks, Latinos and newly naturalized citizens.
The justice department (DoJ) has also begun issuing legal opinions to support states that have passed restrictive new voting rules, even when they appear to contradict existing federal law.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/17/trump-election-integrity-commission-voting-rights-kris-kobach
September 21: Conservatives Are Coming for Your Voting Rights—And Your State Might Be Next
The Trump administration has made no secret it wants to roll back voting rights on a federal level, but local and state elections are at risk too.
https://rewire.news/article/2017/09/21/states-feds-conservatives-coming-voting-rights/
October 4: Judge blocks Texas secretary of state from giving voter information to Trump commission ...
A judge's order adds Texas to a growing list of states not complying with President Donald Trump's investigation into the 2016 elections, which Trump says suffered from large-scale voter fraud.
https://www.texastribune.org/2017/10/04/state-district-judge-bars-texas-secretary-of-state-from-giving-voter-i/
October 6: Trump Election Commission Leader Sought a Radical Change to a Key Voting Law
New documents show that Kris Kobach wanted Trump to make it much harder to register to vote.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the vice chair of President Donald Trump’s election integrity commission, urged the Trump administration to weaken a key federal voting law, according to documents released by a federal court on Thursday. Kobach called for amending the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, which requires states to offer voter registration at the DMV and other federal agencies, to allow states to require proof of citizenship in order to register—a requirement that has blocked tens of thousands from the polls in Kansas.
Since the law went into effect in [in Kansas] in 2013, one in seven Kansans trying to register has been prevented from doing so. Nearly half of those 30,000 people have been under the age of 30. A federal appeals court blocked a key part of the law last year, ruling that “there was an almost certain risk that thousands of otherwise qualified Kansans would be unable to vote in November.” Kobach has appealed that ruling.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/trumps-election-policy-deputy-sought-a-radical-change-to-a-key-voting-law/
October 26: GAO said it would investigate the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in response to a letter last week from Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.). In a response letter to Bennet, the agency accepted the request on Wednesday "as work that is within the scope of its authority."
... the commission has come under fire for its lack of transparency.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/26/gao-trump-voter-fraud-commission-244209
October 26: New Hampshire’s secretary of state said Friday he will remain on an advisory commission to President Donald Trump though he disagrees with voter fraud allegations made by the panel’s vice chairman about his state.
All four members of New Hampshire’s congressional delegation called on fellow Democrat and Secretary of State Bill Gardner to step down from the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in response to a Breitbart column by Republican Kris Kobach published Thursday.
Kobach, commission vice chairman and Kansas secretary of state, said newly released data about how many people failed to get New Hampshire driver’s licenses after using out-of-state licenses for voter registration is proof of fraud that likely led to U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan’s victory over Republican incumbent Kelly Ayotte in November.
