Reiterating that the electoral system in the US is "rigged", President Donald Trump today pushed for a voter identification system during voting.
Trump tweeted on the subject a day after he signed an executive order to abolish a controversial panel which he had set up to study allegations of voter fraud.
"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!" Trump argued in a series of tweets.
Trump justified his decision to abolish the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, headed by Vice President Mike Pence.
He blamed the opposition Democratic party and states run by them for being non-co-operative in its investigation.
"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 ID," Trump said.
Trump has now asked the Department of Homeland Security to review its initial findings and determine next course of action, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.
"Despite substantial evidence of voter fraud, many states have refused to provide the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity with basic information relevant to its inquiry," she said.
The formation of the 11-member panel eight months ago was opposed by Democratic leaders who argued that this was not necessary and raised the issue of privacy and data-sharing.
The commission met only twice.
Senator Chuck Schumer, senate minority leader, said the commission never had anything to do with election integrity.
"It was instead a front to suppress the vote, perpetrate dangerous and baseless claims, and was ridiculed from one end of the country to the other. This shows that ill-founded proposals that just appeal to a narrow group of people won't work, and we hope they'll learn this lesson elsewhere," Schumer said.
The commission's entire purpose was to encourage and enable voter suppression, said Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Leader in the House of Representatives.
"The integrity of our elections has been undermined because of the disenfranchisement of American citizens, not the bigoted delusions of widespread voter fraud," she said.
Indian American Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, described it as "good riddance" and said it a "victory" for voters.
"Through public scrutiny and litigation, the civil rights community highlighted the nefarious purpose of this commission and its members, and worked to ensure that this administration had to follow important transparency and accountability laws," she said.
"From the start, it was clear that the Pence-Kobach commission lacked integrity and credibility. It is telling that even in this announcement to its long overdue demise, President Trump continues the false narrative that there is 'substantial evidence of voter fraud'. There is no proof of widespread illegal voting or voter fraud in the 2016 election," Gupta said.
"The sham commission was a political ploy to provide cover for the president's wild and unfounded claims of mass voter fraud, and to lay the foundation to purge eligible voters from the rolls," she alleged.
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