President Trump Launches Committee On 'Election Integrity'

WASHINGTON, DC — Vice President Pence will chair the "Presidential Advisory Commision on Election Integrity," designed in part to address President Trump's unverified claims of massive voter fraud in the 2016 race, which was launched Thursday by executive order. According to the order signed by Trump, the commission will "promote fair and honest Federal elections," though critics of the president see more suspicious motives behind the order.

Principal Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said during Thursday's press briefing that the commission will be bipartisan.

"The president is committed to the thorough review of registration and voting issues in federal elections, and that's exactly what this commission is tasked with doing," she said. "The bipartisan commission will be made up of around a dozen members, including current and former secretaries of state, with Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach serving as vice chair."

After the 2016 election, in which Trump lost the popular vote by around 3 million votes while winning the Electoral College, the president has repeatedly said that millions of people voted illegally during the election — around 3 million people, in fact — though he has provided no evidence for this claim. He also has said that none of these fraudulent votes were cast for him.

His staff has pointed to a few studies to bolster his assertion but none come close to offering evidence of the type or extent of voter fraud Trump refers to. Most experts on the subject say there is little reason to believe such fraud occurs on a wide scale.

“President Trump is attempting to spread his own fake news about election integrity," Director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project Dale Ho said in response to the commission. "Such claims have been widely debunked, but he is still trying to push his false reality on the American public."

He continued: "It is telling that the president’s choice to co-lead the commission is none other than Kris Kobach, one of the worst offenders of voter suppression in the nation today. If the Trump administration really cares about election integrity, it will divulge its supposed evidence before embarking on this commission boondoggle.”

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