Donald Trump’s pick to investigate voter fraud, Hans von Spakovsky, was once called source of ‘the voter-fraud myth’

The 58-year-old has been accused in the past of suppressing voting by marginalised populations

Hans von Spakovsky (EWTN/Youtube )

Donald Trump’s pick to investigate voter fraud was once called the source of “the voter-fraud myth”.

Hans von Spakovsky, a lawyer from Virginia, has been appointed to the new Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.

The 58-year-old has been accused in the past of suppressing voting by marginalised populations, such as African Americans, who tend to vote for the Democrats.

“I think there are a number of people who have been active in promoting false and exaggerated claims of voter fraud and using that as a pretext to argue for stricter voting and registration rules,” Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California at Irvine, told the Washington Post.

“And von Spakovsky’s at the top of the list."

Mr von Sprakovsky was previously touted as the source of “the voter-fraud myth” by the New Yorker but he himself says he has not yet assumed that voter fraud is a nationwide problem.

“I think the answer to that is what we hope to find out,” he said.

“What I would say is that I think it’s a danger to the way our democratic system works anytime people are either kept out of the polls or their vote is stolen through fraud.”

Mr Von Spakovsky has been a controversial figure in the past and argued against renewing the Voting Rights Act, which is a landmark piece of federal legislation that prohibits racial discrimination in voting, while serving in George Bush’s Justice Department.

He was later selected to join the Federal Election Commission but so many senators objected that Mr von Spakovsky was forced to withdraw.

He also served as vice chairman of the three-member Fairfax County Electoral Board between 2010 and 2012 but the Democrats objected to his reappointment.