Commission on Election Integrity
🟤 Election Tampering ·
May 11, 2017
Summary
Trump created the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity by executive order on May 11, 2017, claiming 3 to 5 million people had voted illegally in 2016. VP Mike Pence was nominated chair; voter-restriction hardliner Kris Kobach was vice chair. The commission met only twice and produced no report. The commission also requested voter data from all 50 states, which no state acquiesced to. When disbanded January 3, 2018, sworn court declarations confirmed it ‘did not create any preliminary findings.’ Democratic commissioner and Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, who had to sue to access the commission’s own work product, released documents showing a ‘pre-ordained outcome’ and a section on evidence of voter fraud that was ‘glaringly empty.’ ‘It’s calling into the darkness, looking for voter fraud,’ Dunlap said. Trump claimed legal challenges had forced the disbanding, not a lack of findings. A Loyola Law School study found only 31 confirmed cases of voter impersonation fraud out of 1 billion votes cast between 2000 and 2014.
Key Figures
Institutions Involved
Sources
- Establishment of Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity
- Report - Trump commission did not find widespread voter fraud
- A comprehensive investigation of voter impersonation finds 31 credible incidents out of one billion ballots cast
- Background on Trump’s ‘Voter Fraud’ Commission