Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Pence to lead voter fraud inquiry
Donald Trump establishes panel to review fraud in voting and voter registration.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump ordered a voter fraud investigation Thursday, thrusting back into the spotlight an issue that few other Republican leaders want to tackle.
The order adds a new chapter to an issue that has confounded many political observers. Without any evidence, Trump, in tweets and public statements for months after his campaign ended, charged massive voter fraud to explain rival Hillary Clinton’s majority of the popular vote, inexplicably casting doubt on an election that he won in the Electoral College.
Trump had signaled in January he would sign an order for an inquiry on fraud, but it has been delayed repeatedly, as aides have uncomfortably answered questions about its purpose amid widespread evidence that voter fraud is a minor problem in elections.
Like many of Trump’s executive orders, the text of Thursday’s missive falls far short of the dramatic rhetoric Trump once used to describe its mission — a “major investigation.” It establishes a 15-member Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, led by Vice President Mike Pence, which “will be solely advisory” and submit a report when its work is complete. It does not mention the 2016 election explicitly, though presumably that will be part of its scope.
The commission will examine fraud in voting and voter registration, vulnerabilities in the system and laws that undermine Americans’ confidence in their votes. Voting rights activists and Democrats worry that it could lay a basis for more restrictive voting laws that could suppress turnout.
Most voting specialists and researchers say Trump’s assertions are unfounded and even dangerous to the credibility of the democratic voting system.
“The evidence for fraud has been thin,” said Michael McDonald, an elections specialist at the University of Florida’s political science department. “It’s a rhetorical point that Republicans have been using to advocate for restrictive voting laws.”
The vice chairman of the commission, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, has championed laws in his state and a handful of others intended to require proof of citizenship to register, which have been fought in courts by opponents who say they are intended to depress turnout. Kobach’s appointment alarmed many voting rights groups.
In addition to Pence and Kobach, the White House named five other members, all current or former election officials, including at least two Democrats.
One was Bill Gardner of New Hampshire, the longest serving secretary of state in the country.
“When over half the people think there’s voter fraud in the polls, I think it’d be helpful to know why they do,” said Gardner, who has held his post since 1976.
Trump at one point claimed to a group of senators that thousands of Massachusetts voters crossed into New Hampshire in buses to vote illegally, an assertion roundly dismissed by Republican leaders in the state as well as Democrats.
“People would notice, I think, a bus,” said William Galvin, a Democrat who is secretary of state in Massachusetts.
Galvin called Trump’s commission “ridiculous” and said Pence’s role is an inherent conflict of interest, given that he ran on the ballot with Trump.
Even Republicans on Capitol Hill have been reluctant to join Trump.
“We’ve moved on,” Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, said in Trump’s first days in office.
“We had an election; it was a decisive outcome. We have a new president, a new Congress and I view the election as history and we’re ready to roll up our sleeves and go to work for the American people.”