While attempting to defend President Donald Trump on Sunday, senior policy adviser Stephen Miller said Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) could prove that there had been widespread voter fraud in November.
Kobach, a former Trump adviser who was reportedly considered for the attorney general post, has been instrumental in passing voting restrictions in his state. But when he appeared on CNN on Monday, he failed to corroborate the Trump administration’s claims that “millions” of people had voted illegally.
Miller claimed on ABC News’ “This Week” that people rode buses to New Hampshire ― a state Trump lost ― so they could vote there.
“The reality is, we know for a fact, you have massive numbers of noncitizens registered to vote in this country. Nobody disputes that. And many, many highly qualified people, like Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, have looked deeply into this issue and have confirmed it to be true and have put together evidence,” he said. “And I suggest you invite Kris Kobach onto your show, and he can walk you through some of the evidence of voter fraud.”
But Kobach had no such evidence when he appeared on CNN the following day.
Kobach claimed that there were “6,000 prospective cases” of voter fraud in New Hampshire because 6,000 people registered to vote with an out-of-state driver’s license on Election Day. (New Hampshire allows same-day voter registration.)
“Of those 6,000, over 6,000, just under 3,000, so just under half, used a Massachusetts driver’s license,” Kobach said, referring to Miller’s specious claim.
He noted that that number could have included people who had recently moved to the state, but asserted ― without evidence ― that “many of those will be out-of-state residents who voted in the state.”
Kobach conceded that registering in two states only constitutes voter fraud if a person casts votes in both states.
Host Kate Bolduan asked Kobach repeatedly if he had found actual cases of illegal voting. He wouldn’t say, but said he would have “more information at the end of the month.”
“’Prospective’ does not mean confirmed,” Bolduan said. “’Prospective’ does not mean illegal votes.”
New Hampshire’s secretary of state, Bill Gardner (D), told the Boston Globe last week that he had no evidence of voters being “bussed in” and that massive voter fraud, if it had occurred, would have been noticed.
“We have never gotten any proof about buses showing up at polling places,” he said. “It’s not in a private place. It’s a public place.”
Republicans in the state have also slammed the Trump administration’s unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud, calling them “delusional” and “shameful.”
Voting rights advocates are concerned that Trump’s repeated lies about voter fraud could open the door for more programs designed to suppress voting. In New Hampshire, GOP lawmakers are considering 10 different bills that would make voting more difficult.