Author of Trumps Favorite Voter Fraud Study Says Everyones Wrong

The problem, says Richman, who identifies as a political moderate, is that the Trump administration’s interpretation of his report is totally off. “Trump and others have been misreading our research and exaggerating our results to make claims we don’t think our research supports,” Richman says. “I’m not sure why they continue to do it, but there’s not much I can do about that aside from set the record straight.”

In an interview airing tonight on ABC News, President Trump also pointed to an actual Pew Research report about outdated voter rolls, but according to its own author, that report found no instances of voter fraud.

Now, Richman’s study and the Pew Report are set to become the foundation of the Trump administration’s newly promised investigation into potential voter fraud—whatever Richman says about their interpretation of his findings. The political exploitation of Richman’s work is a blow against intellectual honesty and scientific integrity. What’s more, voting rights advocates fear the investigation it’s being used to prop up could lead to severe voting restrictions in the future.