WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, who called the White House voter fraud panel a sham and introduced legislation to abolish it, welcomed the news that President Donald Trump was disbanding the commission.

"Trump's voter fraud commission was an offense, based on a lie, blatantly seeking to suppress votes," said Booker, D-N.J. "Now that this step backwards was stopped, let's restore the Voting Rights Act."

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced the end of the commission with the same unsubstantiated claims the president used when he formed the commission.

"Despite substantial evidence of voter fraud, many states have refused to provide the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity with basic information relevant to its inquiry," Sanders said.

When the commission sought the data, New Jersey agreed to give only publicly available voter information: name, address, date of birth, political party affiliation and voting history.

State Division of Elections Director Robert Giles rejected the panel's request for other data, including the last four digits of Social Security numbers, felony convictions, military service and registrations in other states.

Sanders said Trump decided to dissolve the commission "rather than engage in endless legal battles at taxpayer expense," and would ask the Department of Homeland Security to decide on the next move.

Trump announced the commission in May after claiming without evidence that "the millions of people who voted illegally" deprived him of receiving more votes than Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.

During the campaign, he complained of a "rigged" election and embraced a North Carolina voter-identification law that a federal appeals court said targeted minority voters "with almost surgical precision.

Trump on Thursday continued to champion such voter-ID laws despite the fact that studies show that in-person voter fraud, the only problem such laws would address, is

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. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018

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! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018

Booker, who called such voter fraud allegations "a blatant lie," introduced legislation in July to revoke the president's executive order. The bill was co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and 31 other Democratic senators.

The House version attracted 75 sponsors, including Reps. Frank Pallone, D-6th Dist.; Donald Payne Jr., D-10th Dist.; and Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-12th Dist.

In addition, at Booker's request, the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, agreed to look at the panel.

After the 2016 election, reviews by election officials in California, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee found just 324 potential fraud cases out of more than 29 million ballots cast, or one-thousandth of 1 percent, according to the Center for Election Innovation and Research in Washington.

In addition, Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, found just 31 possible fraud cases out of more than 1 billion votes from 2000 through 2014.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.