By Brian Bennett / Tribune Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — One day after disbanding his troubled voter fraud commission without any findings of fraud, President Donald Trump continued to call the U.S. voting system “rigged” and said states should require that Americans have voter identification cards.
In two tweets on Thursday morning, Trump blamed the commission’s failure on the lack of cooperation from “mostly Democrat States” that refused to hand over voter rolls “because they know that many people are voting illegally.” However, voting supervisors in Republican-led states refused as well, objecting on privacy and other grounds.
“Many mostly Democrat States refused to hand over data from the 2016 Election to the Commission On Voter Fraud. They fought hard that the Commission not see their records or methods because they know that many people are voting illegally. System is rigged, must go to Voter I.D.”
He continued: “As Americans, you need identification, sometimes in a very strong and accurate form, for almost everything you do … except when it comes to the most important thing, VOTING for the people that run your country. Push hard for Voter Identification!”
Despite Trump’s assertions, analysts have not found evidence of widespread voter fraud.
Trump created the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in May after alleging, without proof, that millions of illegal votes were cast for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Trump was elected after winning a majority in the Electoral College, but the nationwide count showed Clinton received nearly 3 million more votes.
The commission sought personal data on voters across the country and faced mounting lawsuits in recent months over privacy concerns.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security would review the initial findings of the commission and “determine next courses of action,” prompting speculation that some voter lists already handed over would be checked against immigration databases.
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