People Everywhere Are Trashing Trump’s “Election Integrity” Commission

“Is this where we file complaints about the guy who lost the election but still became president?”

Win Mcnamee/ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

The White House on Thursday released 112 pages worth of emails sent to the Trump administration’s new “election integrity” commission, which recently requested that all 50 states submit detailed voter information, including Social Security numbers, personal addresses, and more, in order to investigate alleged voter fraud in the 2016 election.

Critics say the task force, which is being spearheaded by Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, is nothing more than an unprecedented effort aimed at suppressing the vote in future elections. Voting experts have long concluded incidents of election fraud in the United States are vanishingly rare. President Donald Trump has claimed falsely that 3 million to 5 million people voted illegally in the election, offering no evidence to back this assertion.

Based on the overwhelmingly derisive comments left for the commission, the public appears to largely agree with its critics. Here are some of the standouts:

“This commission is a sham and Kris Kobach has been put on it expressly to disenfranchise minority voters. I am ashamed that my taxpayer dollars are being used for such purposes.”—Charlie Ticotsky

“Is this where we file complaints about the guy who lost the election but still became president?”—John Butler

“I wholeheartedly support California’s decision not to send you the voter data you requested. Your lack of integrity and refusal to acknowledge basic facts undermines our democracy.”—Bob Worobec

“Just fuck off already you shit-stain on democracy.”—CB

“I pay the government a boat load of taxes, so you work for me. I think you are doing a terrible job. Explain yourself.”—Diane Hallinen

“Quit screwing around with voter suppression!”—Gary Weidner

One email recommended the commission investigate goatse—an infamous internet meme featuring a naked man posing in an unsavory fashion.

The emails are well worth reading in full. Check out all 112 pages below:

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate