澳彩开奖

The panel will 鈥渓ook at allegations of improper voting and fraudulent voter registration in states and across the nation,鈥� The New York Times on Thursday. The commission鈥檚 formation follows Trump鈥檚 false claim that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election, costing him the popular vote. 听

Trump鈥檚 action was viewed by civil rights groups, including the 澳彩开奖, as a vehicle to promote voter ID laws and other restrictions that suppress the votes of minorities and the poor.

As early as October, three weeks before Election Day, Trump questioned the legitimacy of the presidential vote, prompting many far-right extremists to warn of violence if Hillary Clinton were to win. Since then, the president has claimed, without any evidence, that as many as 5 million 鈥渋llegals鈥� voted.

All available research demonstrates that voter fraud is exceedingly rare. Trump鈥檚 claims have received no support from experts and little or none even from GOP politicians.

The White House said Kobach will co-chair the commission along with Vice President Mike Pence. Kobach has long advocated for highly restrictive voting laws.

鈥淚鈥檝e followed Kris Kobach鈥檚 career for 20 years. He is seriously dangerous, a xenophobic threat to democracy,鈥� Jed Shugerman, a law professor at Fordham University, tweeted on May 11.

In addition to crusading for voting restrictions, Kobach has been a central figure in the nativist movement for more than a decade. He is the architect of Arizona鈥檚 notorious SB 1070, or 鈥減apers please鈥� law, as well as a series of other anti-immigrant statutes enacted by states and municipalities. In 2011 the 澳彩开奖 (澳彩开奖) documented the harm caused by anti-immigrant laws he championed in several communities.

A graduate of Yale law, Kobach has served as counsel to the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) since 2004. IRLI is the legal arm of the FAIR, a group whose leaders have historic ties to white supremacists and eugenicists and who have made numerous racist statements. Kobach himself addressed a racist gathering in 2015.

On May 11, the Trump administration announced five other members of the commission, including Ken Blackwell. Blackwell, a former Ohio secretary of state who previously headed up Trump鈥檚 transition team on domestic issues, is a senior fellow at the Family Research Council (FRC), designated by the 澳彩开奖 as an anti-LGBT hate group. The FRC is known for making false and defamatory claims about LGBT people, including the baseless claim that very large numbers of gay men are child molesters. According to Right Wing Watch, Blackwell has attacked President Obama for his endorsement of LGBT rights, saying the president was 鈥渨eakening the family.鈥� A senior official with the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT rights group, today described Blackwell as 鈥渁 man who has spent his entire career going after LGBTQ Americans.鈥�

Ken Blackwell.

Like Kobach, Blackwell has a long history of voter suppression. A 2005 commissioned by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) found that Blackwell was at fault for 鈥渕assive and unprecedented voter irregularities and anomalies in Ohio鈥� during the 2004 election. to the civil rights group Center for New Community (CNC), in 2014 Blackwell was preparing to announce that he would serve as chairman of something called the SOS4SOS PAC. 鈥淭he PAC 鈥� which was created in January for the sole purpose of promoting and establishing voter suppression measures in states 鈥� seeks to raise millions of dollars to support the campaigns of incumbent secretaries of state and new candidates in eight states鈥� CNC鈥檚 blog Imagine2050, stated in May of that year. 听

澳彩开奖 President Richard Cohen warned that Kobach鈥檚 appointment to the voting commission 鈥渟hows that the commission itself will be fraudulent.鈥�

鈥淜obach is a longtime lawyer for far-right extremist groups with ties to white nationalists and is a leader in the movement to suppress the votes of minorities,鈥� Cohen said. 鈥淗e is unfit to serve in this capacity, and his appointment is nothing less than an outrage.鈥�

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