Opinion: There’s nothing patriotic about Trump’s voter-fraud panel

To the editor: I was saddened and appalled by the photo depicting Vice President Mike Pence and other members of the federal voter fraud commission seated at a table with five large American flags as a patriotic backdrop. (“What you need to know about President Trump’s voter fraud commission,” July 19)

Millions of brave Americans have died defending what those flags symbolize: the right to vote in a democracy. This commission was created to give cover to the lie that voter fraud is rampant, thus justifying restrictive ID laws to suppress turnout. It is a Republican strategy that is un-American.

The only fraud is the one being perpetrated on the American people by this commission.

Christopher Armen, Calabasas

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To the editor: Decrying that more than 16 states have refused to share their voters’ confidential personal data with the recently formed Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, President Trump ironically noted the following:

“If any state does not want to share this information, one has to wonder what they’re worried about, and I asked the vice president, I asked the commission: What are they worried about? There’s something. There always is.”

Indeed. What about a president who refuses to release his own tax returns, who tries to curb and shut down investigations into his own campaign conduct, who fires the director of the FBI for purely political (or worse) reasons, and who publicly humiliates his own attorney general?

What is he worried about? There’s something. There always is.

Jerald Gale, Sherman Oaks

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