Fulfilling yet another campaign promise, President Trump signed an executive order Thursday creating a Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity headed by Vice President Mike Pence that will review and report on “systems and practices” that could be used for “fraudulent voting.”
Significantly, Trump has appointed Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who has led the implementation of some of the nation’s strictest voting laws, as vice chairman of the panel. Kobach championed his state’s controversial proof of citizenship law, which requires voters to provide a birth certificate or passport to register.
The issue of voter fraud long has divided the nation, with Democrats insisting it doesn’t exist on a scale that would impact election outcomes. Democrats, at the same time, have opposed voter ID laws and other preventative measures, asserting they discriminate against minority voters.
Trump drew ridicule from Democrats after declaring Hillary Clinton’s 2.9 million advantage in the nationwide popular vote would have been erased if illegal aliens had not voted. In California alone, which has the nation’s largest illegal-alien population, Clinton had 4.3 million more votes than Trump.
The problem is that amid many individual reports of voter fraud, there are no reliable figures to prove it exists on a meaningful scale.
Also, when confronted with solid evidence, some states have refused to act.
One such case developed recently in Wisconsin, where undercover journalist James O’Keefe of Project Veritas Action turned in video evidence suggesting a crime.
State officials insisted it wasn’t enough even to begin an investigation.
“You should be investigated. You should lose your job. … Shame on you,” O’Keefe charged in response.
O’Keefe’s video:
[jwplayer fMubyTvx-pszPfxYQ]
The Wisconsin Department of Justice did not respond to WND attempts to obtain comment by phone and email.
WND had reported in 2016 when Project Veritas published video evidence of voter fraud that led to two Democratic Party operatives losing their jobs.
Editor’s Note: Be aware of offensive language throughout videos and in quotes from videos.
One was Scott Foval, who had worked for People for the American Way, a George Soros-funded group, and more recently with Americans United for Change.
In the video, he said: “You know what? We’ve been busing people in to deal with you f—ing a—–es for 50 years, and we’re not going to stop now.”
Foval also said he and his fellow operatives are “starting anarchy” by creating “conflict engagement … in the lines at Trump rallies.”
The second was Bob Creamer, founder and partner of Democracy Partners, and husband of Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.
Foval credited Creamer with coming up with a number of ideas and strategies to enhance Democrats’ standing among voters.
See the second video:
[jwplayer bB6Wiv9u-pszPfxYQ]
See the first:
[jwplayer 0H91xcJU]
The Federal Elections Commission was asked to investigate the evidence in the videos, which show Democratic operatives not only explaining how they were trying to influence the presidential election by manipulating the vote but boasting about it.
The complaint was filed by the Public Interest Legal Foundation, a nonprofit organization “dedicated to protect the right to vote, preserve the constitutional framework of American elections, and educate the public on the issue of election integrity.”
PILF reports, too, the North Carolina State Board of Elections confirmed at least 41 noncitizens cast ballots in 2016, Nevada found three cases, Ohio found 821 noncitizens registered to vote since 2013 and several individuals in Colorado cast absentee ballots in others’ names in 2016.
At one point, Foval said party officials don’t necessarily need to know about actions that are in a gray area of the law or worse.
“Other people can make things happen that you don’t need to know about,” he said.
Another video revealed Alan Schulkin, the New York Democratic commissioner of the Board of Elections, confirming widespread fraud:
[jwplayer fqTncEz1-pszPfxYQ]
In the latest video, O’Keefe replays comments he believes demonstrate an attempt to corrupt the vote.
He cited Roy Korte, director of the criminal litigation unit in the Wisconsin attorney general’s office, who criticized O’Keefe’s video.
“Based on all the available facts, I do not believe that there is any basis to conclude that the videos demonstrate or suggest violations of Wisconsin criminal laws,” Korte said.
O’Keefe said it appeared the investigator didn’t even look at the video evidence.
“It looks at though the AG here is playing politics,” he said, noting that unless investigators review videos and interview witnesses, they won’t have a clear picture.
O’Keefe said witnesses in his group never were interviewed.
He pointed out that as a result of another video investigation by Project Veritas, several other individuals ended up with convictions.
“Based on Mr. Korte’s memo, it does not appear that … anyone from your department bothered to interview Mr. Foval and we know there was no request to interview our undercover journalists,” O’Keefe said. “Further, Mr. Korte apparently excuses his lack of an investigation through unwarranted, derogatory remarks about the quality of our undercover videos.
“In a recent similar situation in Washington, D.C., the law enforcement authorities interviewed our undercover journalists and the people we recorded planning suspicious activities. After a thorough investigation, all three individuals we recorded plead guilty to criminal charges.
“If a law enforcement agency doesn’t at least start an investigation, they’ll never know if there was material to substantiate an arrest,” he said.
Trump’s order explains the commission will study the registration and voting processes for federal elections and report to him on laws, rules, policies and more that “enhance” the American people’s confidence in the integrity of the voting processes, as well as those “that undermine” the confidence.
In addition to the vice president, there will be not more than 15 additional members appointed by the president.
WND reported, the non-profit True the Vote, which has compiled a database of voter fraud, has launched a project that will come up with an estimate of how many illegal votes have been cast in recent elections.
Catherine Engelbrecht’s group was launched in 2009 “after a small group of volunteers worked at our local polls and witnessed firsthand both the need for well-trained election workers and blatant, undeniable acts of election fraud.”
It already had announced a five-step plan for reform, beginning with the analysis of hundreds of millions of files.
The other steps are to develop an American voter ID program, evaluate election technologies, identify dynamic voter registration verification processes and develop model legislation.
Engelbrecht noted to WND that the nation’s elections are run by 50 state systems, all with a range of variables.
She said there’s no doubt fraud occurs, and the nation must recover from an Obama administration that had “a weaponized DOJ that was quick to sue a state whenever [one] tried to clean up its voter rolls.”
Former Federal Elections Commission member Hans von Spakovsky now manages the Election Law Reform Initiative at the Heritage Foundation. He’s told WND and Radio America previously a thorough federal investigation into voting laws is clearly warranted.
“I think it’s long overdue,” he said. “There’s never been any systematic, organized effort by the federal government to try to improve and check on the election integrity of the United States. I think this is a great idea.”
He said Trump’s call is a radical departure from the Obama administration’s position.
“It’s a complete turnaround from the Obama administration, which for the past eight years has done everything it can to try to stop improvements in election integrity: things like Voter ID, things like verifying the citizenship of people who are registered to vote,” von Spakovsky said. “The Obama administration has tried to stop that and has minimized or basically said, ‘There’s no fraud to worry about anywhere.'”
Listen to the WND/Radio America interview with Hans von Spakovsky:
[jwplayer 1If6iGOP]
After the 2012 election, WND compiled the a Big List of vote fraud reports, accessible at this link.
It noted there were 59 different Philadelphia voting districts in which Mitt Romney received zero votes compared to Obama’s 19,605. And in a Cleveland precinct, Obama beat Romney 542 to 0. Romney received zero votes in nine Cleveland precincts.
