Secretary of State Bill Gardner agreed to join President Donald Trump’s election integrity commission, but so far, he has little idea what the commitment entails.
It’s been two weeks since Trump signed an executive order creating the commission set to review alleged voter fraud and improper voting. Gardner got a call May 10 – letting him know the news was about to go public – but has heard almost nothing from the White House since then.
He doesn’t know when the commission will start meeting, how much time it will take or exactly what his role includes.
“We’ll see,” Gardner said Friday. “I don’t know when the meetings are going to be, whether they are going to be on weekends, I don’t know.”
In contrast to the lack of communication from Washington D.C., Gardner has been getting an earful from state Democrats, residents and advocacy groups asking him to reconsider. They pan the commission as a sham and worry Trump will use him to try and validate unsubstantiated claims that millions of people voted illegally last election.
But Gardner, a Democrat and the longest serving secretary of state in the nation, isn’t backing down.
“What is the fear? It’s going to be an open process,” he said. “I don’t think anybody is going to disagree with that.”
He agreed to join the commission to have a seat at the table and to look at what’s driving the nation’s eroding confidence in elections, he said. “It bothers me that a substantial number of people in this country believe there’s voter fraud,” Gardner said.
After losing the presidential contest in New Hampshire, Trump and his advisors have made repeated, unsubstantiated claims of “serious voter fraud” in the state. Trump, without providing proof, claimed voters had been bused in from Massachusetts.
Gardner said he has no reason to believe widespread fraud exists in New Hampshire. And he has seen no evidence of the buses. But he added there’s been at least one conviction of double voting or improper registration in every election since the late 1990s.
Since being named to the commission, Gardner’s office has been flooded with messages. The House Minority Leader sent a letter seeking assurances Gardner won’t use taxpayers dollars to travel to and from commission meetings. Three advocacy groups filed right-to-know requests, seeking correspondence between Gardner and the White House.
Gardner says he has little to offer – the paper trail is thin.
He never submitted a request to join the commission. He got a call “out of the blue” about two months ago from an assistant to Vice President Mike Pence asking him to join the commission, he said. After hanging up, people in the office, on the second floor of the State House, asked “what was that all about,” Gardner said.
In the weeks afterward, Gardner never received the membership paperwork he was expecting. So it came as a surprise when he got another call, this one while he was driving to Canada, that the commission was about to go public.
Gardner has since filled out the necessary paperwork, he said. He thinks the earlier copies were accidentally tossed out by staff, thinking they were spam.
Gardner said he “never envisioned there would be state money for the travel,” but it’s not clear. He’s waiting for the next call.
The Republican-led Senate will vote on the $11.8 billion spending plan Thursday. Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley said he’s confident it will pass the chamber. Now there’s chatter that the House may simply concur with the spending plan, instead of requesting a committee of conference to add its suggestions to the document. If a concurrence happens, the budget would simply go to Republican Gov. Chris Sununu for signature.
In an unusual move, a House Committee reversed its decision to retain a fetal homicide bill for more work, and is now recommending the chamber pass the bill. The controversial legislation will come up for a vote Thursday.
(Allie Morris can be reached at 369-3307 or amorris@cmonitor.com.)