WASHINGTON _ A host of fresh criticism rained down on President Donald Trump's Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity as it held its second meeting Tuesday since the panel's creation in May.
Most of the harshness was directed at Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican who led the meeting in his capacity as vice chairman. Vice President Mike Pence, its chairman, was not present.
Days before the committee met, Kobach penned an op-ed in which he said out-of-state voters interfered in New Hampshire's Senate race and the presidential election in which Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton picked up the state's four Electoral College votes.
During the meeting, which was held at the Granite State's Saint Anselm College, Kobach said allowing same-day voter registration on Election Day may be partly to blame. Kobach suggested people from out of state had flooded its borders on Election Day. "We will never know the legitimacy of the election," he claimed.
Fact-checkers have shot down his claim of fraud, and also provoked criticism from New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner, a Democrat, who serves on the commission.
At one point in the meeting, Gardner challenged Kobach's claim that New Hampshire's Senate race was the result of voter fraud, calling the election of Democrat Maggie Hassan, who ousted incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte last year, "real and valid."
Kobach's claims also brought outside critics to the fore.
"Trump's sham election commission is designed to spread the lie of rampant fraud in order to justify voter suppression," the ACLU's national arm tweeted during the meeting.
Ahead of the commission's meeting, which stretched more than four hours, Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, one of two Democratic House members who represent the state, condemned the commission and Kobach's allegations, advising residents to "consider any claims made during this meeting with extreme skepticism."
"It's alarming to see New Hampshire being singled out by the national voter suppression movement," Shea-Porter said in a statement.
Hassan and her fellow home-state Democratic colleague, Jeanne Shaheen, said in a joint statement the commission represented "an attempt to grossly mislead voters and lay the groundwork for broad-scale, politically motivated voter suppression."
They also said Gardner should quit the commission.
"Secretary Garner's association with this partisan commission risks tarnishing his long legacy of fighting for the New Hampshire Primary and promoting voter participation, and it would be in keeping with his distinguished record to immediately relinquish any role with this commission," the senators wrote.
Sabrina Singh, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, reiterated the call for Gardner to step down from the panel.
"This commission is nothing more than an excuse to suppress the vote and discourage participation in our democratic process," Singh said. "Secretary Gardner should rescind any association he has with the fraudulent commission immediately."
In May, Trump signed an executive order that created the commission he has tasked with probing his own voter fraud claims.
The president has said 3 million to 5 million people voted illegally in an election that sent him to the White House via an Electoral College win, even as he lost the popular vote to Clinton by more than 2 million votes. He has not provided evidence to back the claim.
