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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Voter-Fraud Commission Found Nothing, Ex-Member Says

After reviewing the records of President Donald Trump's disbanded voter-fraud commission, Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said Friday that its only objective was to support the president's unfounded statements that millions of illegal votes were cast during the 2016 elections.

(CN) – After reviewing the records of President Donald Trump's disbanded voter-fraud commission, Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said Friday that its only objective was to support the president's unfounded statements that millions of illegal votes were cast during the 2016 elections.

“Contrary to what we were promised, these documents show that there was, in fact, a pre-ordained outcome to this commission to demonstrate widespread voter fraud, without any evidence to back it up,” Dunlap, who was a member of the commission, said in a statement.

The findings were shared in a letter to Vice President Mike Pence and former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who served as the commission’s vice chair. It comes weeks after the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity was forced to turn over 1,800 records following a court order in June.

"In addition to lacking any evidence of widespread voter fraud, the documents reveal the reasons why some commissioners were intent on keeping the commission's work secret," Dunlap wrote in the letter.

Kobach planned to ask all federal courts to turn over lists of individuals excused from jury service, according to Dunlap. The secretary of state says the released records also revealed that the commission privately discussed using the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program for identifying duplicate voter registrations and considered a large-scale voter data request.

Despite being a member of the commission, the group frequently excluded Dunlap from its activities, he says. Dunlap was one of five Democrats on the 12-member panel.

He sued in November 2017 after the commission refused to turn over documents related to their work. Following a December ruling that Dunlap had a right to participate as an equal member under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, President Trump dissolved the group rather than comply with the order.

Though members of the commission publicly stated that it had reached certain findings, it never issued any official findings or an official report prior to it disbanding.  Because those purported findings received widespread publicity, Dunlap requested his letter to the White House be published in the Federal Register. He also asked that the letter be posted on a website containing the documents and correspondence of the commission in order for the public to review them.

The White House did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment.

Categories / Government, National, Politics

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