President Trump is appointing Heritage Foundation scholar and voting restrictions proponent Hans Von Spakovsky to the sketchy new presidential “elections integrity” commission, the White House announced Thursday evening.
Von Spakovsky served in President George W. Bush’s Justice Department during an era when the agency came under fire for politicizing voting rights issues. Von Spakovsky approved Georgia’s voter ID law, over the objections of career DOJ employees. Since leaving the federal government, he has continued to be an advocate for restrictive voting laws and has fanned the unsubstantiated fears about voter fraud.
He will be a member of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, which is being led by Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who is also a prominent pusher of voter restrictions. The commission was created by Trump in light of his baseless claims that millions voted illegally in the 2016 election and civil rights groups fear it will be used as a trojan horse to promote more restrictive voting laws.
