According to Professor Richard L. Hasen, an election-law expert at the University of California at Irvine, "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. And von Spakovsky's at the top of the list." Hasen said that Spakovsky's appointment to Donald Trump's Commission on Election Integrity was a "a big middle finger" from Trump to people "serious about fixing problems with our elections."