7 Things To Know About President Trump's 'Major' Voter Fraud Investigation

President Trump on Wednesday morning said he would call for an investigation into his claims that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election.

In a two-tweet message posted shortly after 7 a.m., the president said that the results of the investigation could lead to further voting restrictions.

"I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time)," the tweets said. "Depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures!"

Where did this come from?

Trump has repeatedly claimed, with no evidence, that millions of illegal votes were cast in the 2016 election. Most recently, he told a meeting of congressional leaders Monday evening that there were as many as 3 to 5 million illegal ballots cast.

Trump feels that losing the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes, while winning the Electoral College, has delegitimized his presidency, according to reports from national news outlets, including The New York Times, the Associated Press and The Washington Post.

Election officials see no evidence of this

The National Association of Secretaries of State, a majority of whom are Republicans, have said they saw no evidence of voter fraud during the election.

"We are not aware of any evidence that supports the voter fraud claims made by President Trump, but we are open to learning more about the Administration’s concerns," a Tuesday statement from the group said. "In the lead up to the November 2016 election, secretaries of state expressed their confidence in the systemic integrity of our election process as a bipartisan group, and they stand behind that statement today.”

Trump's attorneys don't see it either

When arguing to stop the Michigan recount funded by Jill Stein, Trump's legal team said in a court filing that the election "was not tainted by fraud or mistake."

So where is his proof?

Many Americans are asking the same question.

Trump's press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters Tuesday that the president has seen "evidence" to support his belief.

"He continues to maintain that belief, based on studies and evidence that people have presented to him," Spicer said, deflecting when a reporter asked if Spicer himself believed the claims.

The Pew study

One of the pieces of evidence Spicer mentioned was a study from Pew claiming that 14 percent of people who voted are not citizens.

However, the Pew study does not at all show that. Instead, it showed that many voter registration files are out of date and need upgrading because of people who have died or moved. The study made no determination that fraudulent voting had or had not occurred.

If Trump is going to go after the people that the Pew study looked at, he wouldn't have to go far, because...

Steve Bannon is reportedly registered to vote in two states

Bannon, Trump's adviser is registered both in Florida and New York, according to the Herald Tribune. Steven Mnuchin, Trump's pick to run the Treasury Department, is registered in California and New York, CNN reported.

That doesn't necessarily mean they are voting more than once, just that they didn't notify their old home states that they had moved. These are mundane examples of the inefficiencies pointed out in the Pew study.

Other studies

Other studies have found, in fact, that there is very little evidence of voter fraud from the 2016 election. This aligns with previous findings that voter fraud is remarkably rare.

There was one study, discussed in the Washington Post, that suggested a small but meaningful number of non-citizens had admitted to voting in recent elections. However, this study has been widely criticized for multiple methodological issues. In particular, the findings could simply have been the result of a small number of respondents filling out the survey incorrectly.

Cody Fenwick contributed to this report.

Photo via Gage Skidmore, Flickr, used under Creative Commons