Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) blasted an executive order President Trump signed today creating a commission on voter fraud and elections. Brown – who oversaw eight elections as Ohio’s Secretary of State – said the commission will waste taxpayer dollars and fuel voter suppression efforts. Brown also criticized the appointment of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to co-chair the commissions. Kobach has spent his career working to disenfranchise voters in his home state of Kansas.

“If the President is really concerned about the integrity of American elections, he should support an independent investigation into legitimate concerns about Russian interference in 2016,” Brown said. “Stoking fears of voter fraud that doesn’t exist undermines our democracy and damages the American people’s faith in our elections. Instead the President is wasting taxpayer dollars on false conspiracy theories that fuel very real efforts to make it harder for some Americans to exercise their legal right to vote.”  

Brown wrote to Trump shortly after the election in November, calling on the then President-elect to retract his false claims about voter fraud.  

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