Trump's election commission meets as critics condemn president's 'biggest lie'
Source: Guardian News
Opponents say group exists to soothe Trump’s ego over losing popular vote
Trump warns of voter fraud despite Pence’s claim of ‘no preconceived notions’
Ben Jacobs, Lauren Gambino and David Smith in Washington
Wednesday 19 July 2017 13.45 EDT
Donald Trump warned darkly of potential voter fraud at the first meeting of his election integrity commission on Wednesday, minutes after its chair, Mike Pence, insisted that the commission had “no preconceived notions”.
Speaking to the commission, which comprises a mix of leading conservative advocates for more restrictive voting laws and state and local Democratic officials, Trump said of those state officials refusing to cooperate with the commission: “One has to wonder what are they worried about.” He added: “People would come up to me and expressed concern about voter inconsistencies and irregularities which they saw in some circumstances having to do with very large number of people.”
No state has fully cooperated with the commission’s expansive request for data, which includes the social security numbers of voters, though many have partially done so. State election officials have cited privacy concerns and statutory prohibitions in refusing to share all requested data with the commission. These officials include several members of the commission, among them its vice-chair, Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach, who made the original request for voter data on behalf of the commission.
Trump has long insisted that he won the popular vote in the 2016 election but vast voter fraud was responsible for Hillary Clinton’s margin of almost three million votes over him. He tweeted in late November: “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” There is no evidence for this statement and it met with bipartisan denunciation.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/19/trump-election-integrity-commission-voter-fraud-mike-pence
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