Donald Trump’s advisory commission on election integrity has integrity questions of its own – with some of its own members raising concerns about its secretive operations.

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Democrats in the Senate are requesting a government investigation of the commission for ignoring formal requests from Congress. This week, two members sent letters to commission staff complaining about a lack of information about the panel’s agenda and demanding answers about its activities.

In a letter sent on 17 October, Maine’s secretary of state, Matthew Dunlap, said he was not being made aware of information pertaining to the commission and requested copies of all correspondence between its members since Trump signed the executive order creating it in May.

“I am in a position where I feel compelled to inquire after the work of the commission upon which I am sworn to serve, and am yet completely uninformed as to its activities,” Dunlap wrote in his letter to Andrew Kossack, the commission’s executive director.

Dunlap said he had received no information about research or activities since the last commission meeting, on 12 September. He continued to receive media inquiries about commission developments, he said, “that I as a commissioner am blind to”.

A commissioner from Alabama, Jefferson County probate judge Alan L King, said he sent a similar letter late last week. He said the only information he had received since the September meeting was an email informing him of the death of another commissioner, former Arkansas state lawmaker David Dunn.

“Here I am on this high-level government committee and I don’t know when the next meetings are or how many meetings there will be,” he said. “I am in the dark on what will happen from this point on, to tell you the truth.”

King and Dunlap are two of four Democrats on the 11-member commission. J Christian Adams, a commission member who was a justice department attorney under George W Bush, said in an email all commissioners received the same information.

“Once upon a time election integrity was bipartisan,” Adams wrote. “Apparently not all agree. That’s a shame.”

Requests for comment sent to Kossack and the commission’s vice-chairman, the Kansas secretary of state, Kris Kobach, were not returned. The commission is chaired by Vice-President Mike Pence.

Critics say Trump is using the commission to find support for his unsubstantiated claims that widespread voter fraud cost him the popular vote in the 2016 election. Hillary Clinton received 2.8 million more votes nationwide than Trump, who won the presidency in the electoral college.

While there have been isolated cases of voter fraud in the US, there is no evidence of it being a widespread problem.

Critics argue Trump’s commission is stacked with people who favor voting restrictions rather than those who want to expand access, and that the commission has a predetermined agenda that will result in recommendations making it more difficult for people to register to vote, stay registered and cast ballots.

Its first significant action was to request information about all registered voters in every state, including partial social security numbers, dates of birth, addresses and voting history. The commission scaled back its request after stinging criticism. A tally by Associated Press reporters shows that 15 states denied the request.

In August, the AP filed a records request with the commission under the federal Freedom of Information Act, which specifies that agencies including presidential commissions have 20 business days to respond or 10 calendar days if the request was filed on an expedited basis, as the AP’s was. The AP has received no response.

The commission’s secrecy prompted a lawsuit by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which alleges it is violating federal open meetings and disclosure laws. The group’s executive director, Kristen Clarke, said she was hard-pressed to think of another commission that had acted in such secrecy.

“We have found that in every respect this commission has been carrying out its activities in an almost covert fashion,” she said.

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The lack of openness even applies to members of Congress. Democratic senators have filed at least five requests for information with the commission since June. A 12 September follow-up letter noted that none of those had received a response.

“The commission has not responded to a single letter from senators with oversight jurisdiction over the commission and continues to be rebuked for its questionable activities,” said the letter, written by Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.

Last week, three Democrats wrote to the Government Accountability Office seeking an investigation into the commission. The letter signed by Klobuchar, Michael Bennet of Colorado and Cory Booker of New Jersey cited a lack of transparency on the commission and concern that its conclusions would diminish confidence in the democratic process.

“It is incredible that they are not responding to any of this stuff, and that’s why it’s appropriate for GAO to take a look,” Bennet said.