Trump’s Voter Fraud Panel To Include The NRA’s Favorite Researcher

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Publish Date:
September 8, 2017
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The Trace - Rounds
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Summary

John R. Lott Jr., the controversial economist whose work is celebrated by the National Rifle Association and other pro-gun groups, will take part in the second meeting of President Donald Trump’s “election integrity” commission.

Lott will appear as the final witness in the first panel during Tuesday’s meeting, on the subject of “Historical Election Turnout Statistics and the Effects of Election Integrity Issues on Voter Confidence,” according to a report by Talking Points Memo. Other witnesses include Andrew Smith, a professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire, and Kimball Brace, who heads Election Data Services, a consulting firm.

But as Lott’s work became the backbone of many pro-gun arguments, it came under scrutiny from respected academics:

The National Research Council, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, assembled a panel to look into the impact of concealed-carry laws; 15 of 16 panel members concluded that the existing research, including Lott’s, provided “no credible evidence” that right-to-carry laws had any effect on violent crime. Economists Ian Ayres of Yale University and John Donohue of Stanford University argued that Lott had drawn inaccurate correlations: Cities had experienced a spike in crime in the 80’s and 90’s in part because of the crack epidemic, not because of strict gun laws. When they extended their survey by five years, they found that more guns were linked to more crime, with right-to-carry states showing an eight percent increase in aggravated assault.

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