Kris Kobach's Math Problem: 'We May Never Know' If Hillary Clinton Won The 2016 Popular Vote

WASHINGTON, DC — Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who sits on President Trump's voter integrity commission, said Wednesday that we may never really know who truly won the popular vote in the 2016 presidential election, an assessment at odds with virtually every respectable study on voter fraud.

Clinton received nearly 3 million more votes than Trump.

Asked Tuesday by Katy Tur of MSNBC whether Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, Kobach said, "We may never know the answer." (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Trump has previously said that despite the official tally giving Clinton just under 3 million more votes in the election — even as she lost the Electoral College — between 3 and 5 million of those votes were cast illegally. And according to Trump, all those illegal votes went to his opponent, and none to him.

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Election experts say that while voter fraud does occur, it is extremely rare and comes nowhere close to altering millions of votes as Trump supposes. Trump himself has provided no credible evidence for his claim. When pressed, the White House pointed to a Pew study; the author, however, pointed out that the study makes no claims about actual voter fraud and certainly none that support Trump's allegations.

That study, conducted by David Becker, examined flaws in the voter registration system.

“As I’ve noted before, voting integrity better in this election than ever before," Becker said of the 2016 election in a tweet. "Zero evidence of fraud.”

He added: “We found millions of out of date registration records due to people moving or dying, but found no evidence that voter fraud resulted.”

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.”

Even Trump's own lawyer's disagreed with his claims. 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."

"If we don't know if Clinton really won the popular vote then we also don't know if Trump really won the Electoral College," noted polling expert Nate Silver on Twitter.

Tur noted on Twitter that Kobach actually acknowledged as much.

"So are the votes for Donald Trump that led him to win the election in doubt as well?" she asked.

"Absolutely," Kobach said.

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images