[Bumped to top]

I thought it could not get worse with the Pence-Kobach faux election integrity commission with the appointment of Kris Kobach, the Secretary of State of Kansas who has trumped up claims of voter fraud to advance his career and to make it harder for people to register and vote, and former Ohio SOS Ken Blackwell, who once rejected voter registration forms based upon the weight of the sheet of paper.

But I was wrong.

The President has now named Hans von Spakovsky to the Commission. I talk about him in this old Slate piece on the Fraudulent Fraud Squad, the name I give to people who falsify and exaggerate claims of voter fraud to pass laws to make it harder for people (likely to vote for Democrats) to register and to vote. I also discuss his antics in Chapter 2 of my 2012 book, The Voting Wars. von Spakovsky is not a credible person on issues of election reform.

But to get a sense of the breadth of what he’s done, you must read Jane Mayer’s The Voter Fraud Myth, and particularly this story there:

This appointment is a big middle finger from the President to those who are serious about fixing problems with our elections.

The idea that some (virtually unknown) Democrats choose to serve on this Commission is beyond me.