The Advisory Commission on Election Integrity created by President Trump soon after taking office has been dissolved after he signed an executive order to that effect.
Faced with fierce opposition and very limited cooperation, the controversial commission has met with resistance and series of lawsuits when it requested voter information; social security numbers and home addresses.
A week into his presidency, Trump claimed in a tweet that at least 3 million illegal votes were cast in the 2016 election, without offering any proof. The commission, chaired by Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas’ Secretary of State Kris Kobach, have been expected to make public a report detailing their findings but they met only twice in an official setting last year.
While trying to downplay the reason behind the decision, the White House issued a statement, ”Despite substantial evidence of voter fraud, many states have refused to provide the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity with basic information relevant to its inquiry. Rather than engaging in endless legal battles at taxpayer expense, today I signed executive order to dissolve the commission, and have asked the Department of Homeland Security to review these issues and determine next course of action.”
The high ranking Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer didn’t mince words while rejoicing the demise of the panel, ”The commission never had anything to do with election integrity, it was instead a front to suppress the vote, perpetrate dangerous and baseless claims, and was ridiculed from one end of the country to the other. This shows that ill-founded proposals that just appeal to a narrow group of people won’t work, and we hope they’ll learn this lesson elsewhere.”
A White House senior staffer blames Democrats on the panel for refusing to work with states who couldn’t comply by turning over public data. Reiterated that the Homeland Security Department is better placed in handling such matters.
Neba Benson,
BaretaNews Foreign Correspondent/Analyst
