US Court Strikes Down Challenge to Trump’s Voter Fraud Investigation

A United States federal appeals court has rejected a US advocacy group's attempt to block President Donald Trump's voter fraud panel, according to a ruling issued on Tuesday in Washington, DC.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – In its ruling, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) lacks legal standing to sue Trump's Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.

“Specifically, we uphold the denial of a preliminary injunction because EPIC has not shown a substantial likelihood of standing,” the ruling said.

It added that EPIC was “not a voter” and the group had not been injured by the commission’s attempt to collect voter data for its investigation.

EPIC had sought an injunction to prevent the commission from collecting voter data from 50 US states, but a lower court denied the request. Tuesday's ruling came in response to EPIC's appeal of the lower court's decision.

Trump established the commission with an executive order while claiming that voter fraud had cost him the popular vote in the 2016 election, which official tallies showed the president losing by about 3 million votes despite winning the presidency through an institution known as the Electoral College.

Trump’s commission has faced criticism for requesting that states provide publicly available voter data, including names, addresses and partial Social Security numbers. Many states have refused to comply with the request.

Mike Pence said earlier that the goal of the commission's work is to look for vulnerabilities in voter registration that could lead to improper voter registration and improper voting.