Michael Halpern and Michael Latner in The Guardian:

But by far the most glaring omission in membership concerns people who can most effectively evaluate data on elections and voter fraud: election scientists. The last commission, headed by Obama White House Counsel Bob Bauer and Mitt Romney’s election lawyer Ben Ginsberg, brought on Stanford political scientist Nathaniel Persily to direct research.

Persily is an expert with a reputation for impartial, careful work. The new commission currently has no political scientists or election experts needed to investigate allegations of voter fraud or voter suppression. Instead, President Trump has packed the commission with attorneys like J. Christian Adams, Hans von Spakovsky, and Christy McCormick, all of whom have specialized in bringing unsupported allegations of voter fraud, and are outspoken advocates for more restrictive voter eligibility requirements.

As a result, the commission’s first meeting sounded more like a bunch of fanatics attempting to justify a self-fulfilling prophecy than experts asking serious questions. Christy McCormick claimed that she had personally witnessed misconduct at polls, and von Spakovsky repeatedly insisted that mass voter fraud exists across the country, even though nobody had any evidence to support such claims. After the meeting, Commission Chair Kris Kobach went so far as to tell the press that “we may never know” if President Trump may have won the popular vote.