While Trump was pushing Senate Republicans to continue their effort to repeal and/or replace Obamacare last Wednesday, his Election Integrity Commission held their first meeting. The purpose of the commission (they claim) is to look into the issues that undermine the publics' confidence in the American election process. The commission was assembled under Trump's belief that millions of illegal immigrants had been bused in across state lines to vote against him during the 2016 presidential election.

Trump and commission attempt to justify their existence

Last month, commission chairman and the Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach sent a request to all states asking that they turn over voter rolls. Those voter rolls would provide detailed information on voters including voter addresses, the last four digits of their social security numbers and what parties they've voted for since 2006. A senior fellow of the conservative Heritage Foundation, Hans von Spakovsky -- who is also a member of the commission -- has defended their effort by saying that voter rolls are currently filled with erroneous, duplicate, and outdated registrations.

During their first meeting, Spakovsky handed everyone print outs from a database which he claimed showed 1,100 cases of voter fraud.

The meeting was also spurred to stay on track when President Trump made an appearance, saying that voter fraud undermines democracy. He said that voter suppression and intimidation "must be stopped." But the consensus view is that it is Trump himself -- along with his commission and Republicans -- at the center of voter suppression and intimidation.

Trump campaign's relation to voter 'integrity'

Using recent reports that the Trump campaign colluded with Russian officials, its already been established by the intelligence community that Russian hackers tried to sway the election in favor of then-candidate Donald Trump. Other reports have said that Russian hackers had targeted voting machines in favor of Trump.

Even more, it was reported that while people were going to the polls, armed Trump supporters would stand outside of voting locations claiming to be on the lookout for voter fraud. Along with this were reports of Republican-led states battling with the courts over their strict voter identification laws which suppressed many voters.

Much of the reasoning behind such laws were the claims that it was to prevent voter fraud which Republicans believe is rampant, despite a lack of evidence. There is also the matter of gerrymandering by many Republican states which Federal courts have already determined suppressed voters in districts that generally vote Democrat. The voting commission initially claimed itself to be bipartisan but further proof that the committee itself is fraudulent goes with the fact that it is Republican-led. It was reported that on Monday, a federal judge declared that the commission was exempt from federal privacy review requirements and could collect the information they wanted nationwide.
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