The men and women responsible for administering American elections have challenged President Trump’s claims that last year’s voting was marred by widespread fraud but they’re apparently unwilling to demand that he stop.

Le Los Angeles Times reports today that California Secretary of State Alex Padilla was rebuffed on Friday when he tried to convince the National Association of Secretaries of State to adopt a resolution calling Trump’s voter fraud claims “without merit” and urging the President to “cease his baseless allegations about voter fraud.”

Padilla was not allowed to bring his resolution to the floor of the association’s annual meeting in Washington.

“It’s shocking that secretaries of state from both sides of the aisle don’t want to stand up and defend our credibility,” Padilla told the newspaper.

In January, the association issued a statement saying “We are not aware of any evidence that supports the voter fraud claims made by President Trump, but we are open to learning more about the Administration’s concerns.” The statement added that before the November election, the secretaries “expressed their confidence in the systemic integrity of our election process as a bipartisan group, and they stand behind that statement today.”

Trump has announced that Vice President Mike Pence will lead an administration investigation of voter fraud. Congressional leaders from both parties have said they see no evidence to back up the President’s claims of fraud, noting that a series of investigations by Democrats, Republicans and independent groups, stretching over several elections, have found only a handful of illegal votes among billions cast.

###