VA Gov. Has ‘No Intention’ Of Helping Sketchy ‘Election Integrity’ Commission

Steve Helber/AP

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) on Thursday said he has “no intention” of cooperating with President Donald Trump’s sketchy commission to investigate alleged voter fraud.

“I have no intention of honoring this request,” McAuliffe said in a release.

He said the commission’s chair, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R), asked for a list “of all registered Virginia voters, the last four digits of their social security numbers, their addresses, date of birth, political affiliation, and their voting history.”

“There is no evidence of significant voter fraud in Virginia. This entire commission is based on the specious and false notion that there was widespread voter fraud last November,” McAuliffe said. “At best this commission was set up as a pretext to validate Donald Trump’s alternative election facts, and at worst is a tool to commit large-scale voter suppression.”

McAuliffe cited upcoming Virginia state elections as a higher priority for resources than Trump’s dubious “election integrity” commission.

“I’m not going to divert resources that could potentially compromise that important work to enable this politically motivated and silly posturing,” McAuliffe said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Esme Cribb is a newswriter for TPM in New York City. She can be found on Twitter @emquiry and reached by email at esme@talkingpointsmemo.com.
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