Article snippet: President civil rights groups. What to know about the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity Through an voter registration and voting. Critics of the newly-formed panel say that its true purpose is to validate repeated false claims by Trump that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 presidential election, and that its review could lead to restrictive voting laws that will suppress votes nationwide. The commission is headed by Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, both Republicans. Seven of the commission members are Republican, and five are Democrats. "They're claiming that it's bipartisan -- but it is led by Republicans, dominated by Republicans and stacked with the nation's strongest proponents of voting restrictions,” said Wendy Weiser, director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, which called the commission a "sham." Commission's request for voter data met with pushback and legal challenges On June 28, Kobach sent election officials in every state an unprecedented request to turn over to the commission "publicly-available data from state voter rolls and feedback on how to improve election integrity" by July 14. In response, election officials in 21 states and the District of Columbia refused to submit any data, citing privacy concerns, while eight states said they won’t submit data unless the commission pays them or goes through a formal reques... Link to the full article to read more