Vann R. Newkirk II: What are your goals for your work with the commission?

Matthew Dunlap: It’s simple: This commission should be about the sovereign right of a citizen to exercise the franchise of self-governance. Everything else falls into place after that.

Newkirk: Where does the idea of voter fraud fall within that goal?

Dunlap: One of the things I tried to convey in the first meeting was, they were talking about this “coiled serpent” of people being registered to vote in more than one place. But that’s not against the law and is usually not the fault of the voter. It’s because they’ve moved and the administrators haven’t updated their voter files. It’s not because somebody’s trying to do anything wrong, but those people have been described as this great threat or tremendous risk.

Newkirk: And the members of this commission are the ones creating that narrative.

Dunlap: Some of the people who are opposed rather vehemently to the very existence of this commission say that I should resign, because being a respected elections official and a Democrat only lends legitimacy to what many people are regarding as a sham to increase suppression and to disenfranchise voters.

Well, that’s arguable. I think you have to give it a shot first. If you’re not there saying the things that I’m saying, then the only things they’re talking about are how to stop voter fraud—without really trying to define what that means.

I, for one, don’t believe for a second that we’re going to find 3 million to 5 million illegally cast votes, as the president claims. My goals and hopes for this are that we can actually answer some of the lingering questions; put voters first; and, if there are opportunities to improve the process, we’ll do it with the voter in mind and not the elections administrators.

Newkirk: So you think that collecting more data, as Kobach has requested of states, could ease concerns about voter fraud and allow you to pursue the questions you want to pursue?

Dunlap: It depends on what data you’re looking at. This is one of the first rules of research. Know what you’re looking for.

We had our now-infamous organizational conference call. That’s where the idea came up to ask for the voter data and start looking at this interstate voter-registration issue. Nobody expected the backlash that we got, but I had my “spider-sense” tingling. I said, “Well, you want to be a little careful with what you’re asking for and how you’re asking for it.” Don’t demand it, ask for it. And only ask for what’s legally and publicly available pursuant to those states’ laws.

Newkirk: With the commission going forward, how do you think you can represent the interests of voters?

Dunlap: Now that we’ve had our first meeting, I’ve gotten a flavor of where everybody else is coming from. For the next meeting, I’m going to be a bit better prepared, and bring some material on the things that we’ve seen and done in Maine.