Trump voter fraud commission member: Claims of fraud were an ‘urban legend’

A member of President Trump’s voter fraud commission that was dissolved this week says claims of widespread voter fraud are an “urban legend.”

“I think it’s a wild goose chase. I think it’s an urban legend that there’s widespread voter fraud in the U.S.,” Jefferson County, Ala., Presiding Probate Judge Alan King said, according to AL.com.

“I hope (the Department of Homeland Security and White House officials) will start focus on real issues instead of made-up issues.”

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King, a Democrat, was one of the members on the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity and a frequent critic of its work.

President Trump on Wednesday dissolved the controversial commission that was set up to investigate his unverified claims of widespread voter fraud during the 2016 presidential election.

The White House said Trump decided to disband the commission because several states failed to hand over voter information.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that “rather than engage in endless legal battles at taxpayer expense,” Trump signed an executive order abolishing the panel and turning the matter over to the Department of Homeland Security.

The commission was established months after Trump claimed, without citing evidence, that millions of people voted illegally in 2016, depriving him of a popular-vote victory over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

King said the commission’s disbanding “came out of the blue.”

He also said its work had not been transparent.

King said he doesn’t know what the committee was “supposed to accomplish,” adding that he has been “frustrated for a while.”

“If we’re going to go down the road of studying issues, let’s do it right. Don’t just spend a whole lot of taxpayer money … if we’re not going to do it right, let’s not just do it at all,” he said.

King, who also serves as the chief election officer for Jefferson County, said in a report in September that he hoped the commission would focus on “real election issues” facing the country, such as the “alleged ‘hacking’ by the Russians, instead of spending precious time focusing on non-issues to deprive American citizens from voting.”