Dissolution of Pence-Kobach Commission is Good News for Voting Rights

Commission Never Planned to Address Real Problems in Our Democracy

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump signed an executive order dissolving the controversial Presidential Commission on Election Integrity (also known as the Pence-Kobach Commission), which Campaign Legal Center has strongly opposed as nothing more than a forum to undermine citizens’ right to vote. The administration has directed the Department of Homeland Security to review the commission’s initial findings and determine the next course of action.

“We know there are very serious problems in our democracy that voters want addressed, such as foreign interference and voter suppression efforts, but this commission never planned on tackling any of those,” said Danielle Lang, CLC senior counsel. “Instead, the commission was nothing more than a partisan tool to implement an agenda that would make it harder for Americans to vote. Thus far, DHS has been focused on real election integrity issues related to hacking and security of our electoral infrastructure, as it should be. CLC will be watching closely to see if President Trump and former Kansas Secretary of State Kobach, vice-chair of the commission, will try to derail DHS’s work in an effort to continue to push a partisan agenda that makes it more difficult for Americans to participate in the political process.”

In February 2017, CLC submitted a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to uncover documents regarding the commission’s plan for a “major investigation into voter fraud.”  In September 2017, CLC received a response to its FOIA request that showed an employee with the Heritage Foundation, Hans von Spakovsky, pushed back on naming a single Democrat or any mainstream Republicans to the Presidential Commission on Election Integrity.

CLC will continue to file FOIA requests and utilize other legal tools as it watchdogs the administration’s efforts.