Secretary of State Matt Dunlap says President Donald Trump’s controversial voter fraud commission should make sure ballot security doesn’t discourage voter participation.
Dunlap is one of four Democrats on a 12-member panel that critics say is engineered toward nationalizing Republican voter suppression efforts. The commission met for the first time at the White House Wednesday, and Dunlap used his opening remarks to offer some advice: to address claims of voter fraud.
“Anything that we do to answer those questions, to reassure people that there are no goblins under the bed. And if there are we deal with them in way a that is, again, balanced toward access for the voting public to participate in their government. This is not ours, it belongs to them,” he said.
Critics of the president’s Advisory Commission on Election Integrity believe the commission is an excuse to purge voter rolls and to enact policies that will disenfranchise Democratic-leaning voters, such as minorities or college students.
There are no fewer than seven lawsuits seeking to halt the commission — some challenging its conduct and transparency, others the legality of its purpose.
In his opening remarks to the Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, Vice President Mike Pence repeatedly attempted to reassure viewers that the panel’s mission is not a sham.
“I can attest and promise you that we do go into this process with no preconceived notions or preordained results,” he said.
But Pence was seemingly undercut by Trump, who also addressed the commission. First he repeated his unproven claim that there was widespread voter fraud during the 2016 election. And he also insinuated that the states, including Maine, refusing to handover detailed registered voter information to his election commission are hiding the evidence.
“If there’s any state that does not want to share this information, one has to wonder what they’re worried about,” he said. “I ask the vice president, I ask the commission, what are they worried about? There’s something. There always is.”
Dunlap has told the commission that the registration data would violate state laws protecting personal voter-registration data from being made public.
The controversy illustrates the quagmire for Dunlap, who says he wants to act as a check on the commission, but whose participation is seen by some as legitimizing its work.
