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| Trump to Order Inquiry Into Voter Fraud and Suppression | Trump to Order Inquiry Into Voter Fraud and Suppression |
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| WASHINGTON — President Trump plans to name Kris W. Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state who has pressed for aggressive measures to crack down on undocumented immigrants, to a long-promised commission to investigate voting fraud in the United States, a White House official said Thursday. | |
| The commission is the official follow-through on Mr. Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that several million “illegals” voted for his Democratic rival and robbed him of a victory in the national popular vote. | |
| Mr. Kobach, who has championed the strictest voter identification laws in the country, will be the vice chairman of the commission, which is to be led by Vice President Mike Pence and is expected to include about a dozen others, including state officials from both political parties, the official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to detail an announcement expected later Thursday. | |
| Officials said Mr. Trump would sign an executive order on Thursday creating the commission, which they said would have a broad mandate to review policies and practices that affect Americans’ confidence in the integrity of federal elections. Improper or fraudulent registrations, voting fraud and voter suppression are among the issues the commission will study, they said. | |
| One adviser said the group would spend about a year drafting a report that would take a comprehensive look at election issues that have preoccupied state officials for many years. | |
| But even before the commission was made official, Mr. Kobach’s influential position on it was generating controversy, particularly among immigration advocacy groups that said they feared he would use the perch to try to prevent minority voters from casting ballots. | |
| Mr. Kobach has been the driving force behind a Kansas law requiring new voters to produce a passport, a birth certificate or naturalization papers as proof of citizenship or be denied the ability to cast ballots. He worked last year to disqualify the state and local votes of thousands of people who did not meet the criteria. He has advocated the proof-of-citizenship requirement at the federal level as well, citing rampant voter fraud without producing proof of a widespread problem. | |
| “Kris Kobach being named to run a commission on ‘voter integrity’ is like naming Bernie Madoff to run a commission on financial crimes,” said Frank Sharry, the executive director of America’s Voice Education Fund. “He has dedicated his professional career to trying to deny people of color the vote and to trying to drive millions of immigrants out of the country.” | |
| Mr. Kobach did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and White House representatives would not divulge details in advance of the planned announcement. | |
| Civil rights groups also reacted with alarm to the impending creation of the task force, arguing that Mr. Trump’s own comments about illegal voting by immigrants suggested that his intent was to work to restrict the voting rights of minorities. | |
| Sherrilyn Ifill, the president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, called the commission “a thinly veiled voter suppression task force,” adding that it was “designed to impugn the integrity of African-American and Latino participation in the political process.” | |
| The naming of the commission comes at a tumultuous time in the White House after Mr. Trump’s abrupt firing on Tuesday of James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director who had been leading the investigation into possible ties between his campaign and Russia. United States intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia worked to sway the election to Mr. Trump. | |
| There is no evidence to support Mr. Trump’s claims, which have been discredited repeatedly by fact-checkers, that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 contest. | There is no evidence to support Mr. Trump’s claims, which have been discredited repeatedly by fact-checkers, that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 contest. |
| As a candidate, Mr. Trump repeatedly raised doubts about the integrity of the American voting system. After winning election, he told members of Congress that between 3 million and 5 million undocumented immigrants voted illegally for Hillary Clinton, costing him the popular vote. | As a candidate, Mr. Trump repeatedly raised doubts about the integrity of the American voting system. After winning election, he told members of Congress that between 3 million and 5 million undocumented immigrants voted illegally for Hillary Clinton, costing him the popular vote. |
| The president has continued to put an unusual amount of focus on his election victory in the months since he was sworn in, keeping a stack of color-coded maps on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office to show visitors his margin of victory in the Electoral College. | The president has continued to put an unusual amount of focus on his election victory in the months since he was sworn in, keeping a stack of color-coded maps on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office to show visitors his margin of victory in the Electoral College. |