President Donald Trump's claim that voter fraud occurs on a massive scale dates back to before the 2016 election. | Evan Vucci/AP Trump continues to push, without evidence, that 'many people are voting illegally'

Hours after shuttering his controversial voter fraud commission, President Donald Trump called Thursday morning for voter identification laws and pushed once again his baseless assertion that “many people are voting illegally.”

“Many mostly Democrat States refused to hand over data from the 2016 Election to the Commission On Voter Fraud. They fought hard that the Commission not see their records or methods because they know that many people are voting illegally. System is rigged, must go to Voter I.D.,” the president wrote on Twitter.


“As Americans, you need identification, sometimes in a very strong and accurate form, for almost everything you do.....except when it comes to the most important thing, VOTING for the people that run your country. Push hard for Voter Identification!” he continued in a second post moments later.

Laws requiring voters to present identification at their polling places in order to cast ballots have proven controversial, with Republicans arguing that such legislation prevents voter fraud. Democrats, who mostly oppose such laws, have argued they disenfranchise minority voters, who are generally less likely to possess the type of identification the laws require.

Trump’s Thursday morning posts echoed the statement he issued Wednesday to mark the closure of his voter fraud commission, which he said was unable to be effective because leaders in Democrat-controlled states were unwilling to participate. The president said Wednesday that he has instead asked the Department of Homeland Security to examine the issue.

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The president’s claim that voter fraud occurs on a massive scale dates back to before the 2016 election, when he regularly predicted that the election would be rigged and refused to declare that he would accept the voting results, whatever they might be.

Even after his Electoral College victory, Trump continued to insist, without providing proof, that his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, had been the beneficiary of illegally cast votes. He told congressional leaders at a White House meeting days after his inauguration that between 3 million and 5 million people voted illegally in the 2016 election, in which Clinton won the popular vote.

Despite the president’s assertion, there is no evidence of voter fraud on anywhere close to the type of scale he has alleged.

