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Liberal groups reacted with anger to President Trump's choice of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to be a member of a presidential advisory commission on election integrity.

Kobach has been the leading advocate in the conservative movement for tougher laws to combat voter faud, including voter ID laws. He has reportedly been the source of Trump's claim that there was widespread fraud in the 2016 election, an assertion that the administration has not been able to prove.

Kobach has not officially been nominated to the commission by the White House, but Kobach's office tweeted Thursday that he would be co-chairman of the commission. Vice President Mike Pence will be the chairman. The executive order creating the commission was signed Thursday.

"We need to #StopVoterFraud and ensure the integrity of our election system," Kobach tweeted Thursday.

Kobach has used his Kansas office to make the case that fraud does occur but is usually overlooked by a legal system that doesn't police it properly. His office was given invetigatory powers by his state and has convicted nine people of voter fraud, including one non-citizen.

Civil rights groups have long contended that that there is no proof that widespread fraud occurs and that voter ID laws serve only to discourage minorities from voting. "We are deeply troubled by the inclusion of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach as vice-chair of the commission. His discriminatory and regressive views on voting rights are well known and render him too biased to neutrally assess voting issues. While the commission may include Democrats and Republicans, it completely lacks the bipartisan credibility of past commissions," said the Leadership Council on Civil Rights, a coalition group.

The National Council of La Raza echoed the sentiment. "Today's appointment of Kris Kobach to head the Presidential Commission on Election Integrity is the equivalent of the fox guarding the hen house. Kobach has a long and undistinguished record of disenfranchising eligible voters, particularly minorities, in the name of preventing voter fraud, which every available research shows is virtually nonexistent."

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Liberals angered by Trump pick of Kobach for election commission - Washington Examiner