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 have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

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