We Need To Talk About Trump’s Voter Suppression Commission

By Leigh Chapman, Senior Policy Advisor at Let America Vote

Consider this a friendly reminder that the so-called Presidential Commission on Election Integrity was created to defend Trump’s reputation after his blatantly false statement that he only lost the popular vote because millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election. Trump wanted to justify the lie that he himself spread in an attempt to make people doubt our election system. So, he assembled a commission intended to manufacture support for combating this “voter fraud”– a problem that doesn’t actually exist. Recently, it’s become clear that the commission is responsible for creating many problems of its own. Here are some issues that Trump’s vanity project has caused so far:

• 15 secretaries of state are still refusing to give the commission any information, having balked at the commission’s original request for personal details about their citizens including partial Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, and voting history.
• The concern from those 15 secretaries of state is valid– especially considering the recently uncovered security risks in a voter registration database run by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, and used by 32 states.
• Administrators of the database admitted to emailing passwords and using unencrypted servers– putting the confidential information of thousands at risk.
• On a similar note, commission members themselves are in hot water for using personal email addresses to conduct government business.
• The commission is having some serious internal issues as well. Commission member and Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap recently wrote a letter to the executive director demanding information and citing an unacceptable lack of transparency.
• Dunlap was concerned that he has not received any updates about the commission since its second and most recent meeting on Sept. 12. He was also angry that a staff member he’d never even heard of was recently arrested on child pornography charges.
• Multiple lawsuits have been filed against the commission– and the legal fees spent defending the shady group will be paid for with our tax dollars.
• Despite the fact that the commission has not found any evidence of widespread voter fraud, a misleading report by the Heritage Foundation– a bogus conservative organization specializing in manufacturing fear about nonexistent voter fraud– is being spread by far right news sources.
• Meanwhile, there’s been no word on when, where, or whether the commission will meet again.

We can’t let vote suppressors dominate the political conversation by spreading misinformation — and flat- out lies — about the strengths and weaknesses of our election system. If Trump and Kobach really cared about protecting the right to vote, they would be working to ensure that every eligible citizen has fair access to the ballot. It’s up to all of us to expose the Commission on Election Integrity for what it really is– a waste of our time, attention, and tax dollars.