The vice chairman of President Trump’s now-disbanded voter integrity commission said Wednesday the decision to cancel the panel was a tactical decision that will actually speed up the investigation into voter fraud.
Kris Kobach, Kansas secretary of state, said President Trump’s decision to nix the panel and ask Homeland Security to pick up the investigation will actually move much faster, and will still be able to look at critical issues such as the extent of noncitizens who register to vote — and in many cases actually cast illegal ballots.
Mr. Kobach said the panel, officially known as the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, had gotten bogged down in legal challenges filed by Democrats, liberal groups — and even one Democratic member of the commission itself.
Now, he said, the probe will go on, but it will no longer be done through public meetings, and Democrats — who had five seats on the voting commission — will now be shut out as the investigation moves to the executive branch bureaucracy.
“It will get done faster, but the Democrats no longer have a seat at the table,” he said. “If they think this is a victory for the left, they are wrong.”
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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