New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner, right, introduces one of the speakers at a meeting of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017 in Manchester, NH. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, center, and former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, left, also attend. Gardner opened the meeting by defending his participation and the panel's existence, saying it hasn't yet reached any conclusion. (AP Photo/Holly Ramer)

Manchester, N.H. — Kris Kobach, the vice chairman of President Donald Trump’s commission on election fraud, on Tuesday dismissed criticism that the panel is bent on voter suppression, saying there is a “high possibility” it will make no recommendations when it finishes its work — and even if it does, it can’t force states to adopt them.

Trump, a Republican, created the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in May to investigate his unsubstantiated claims that millions of people voted illegally in 2016. Democrats have blasted the commission as a biased panel determined to curtail voting rights, and they ramped up their criticism ahead of and during the group’s daylong meeting in New Hampshire.

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, a Democrat, said some voters have canceled their registrations or been hesitant to register since learning the group has asked state governments to provide data on individual voters.

“Their voting suppression impact has already begun,” he said on a press call organized by the Democratic National Committee.

The commission in June requested any records considered public by states, including driver’s license numbers, partial Social Security numbers and voting histories. No state is sending all of the information sought, and 14 states are denying the commission’s request.

There was no mention of the data request during the commission’s meeting, which included presentations about historical election turnout data, electronic voting systems and issues affecting public confidence in elections. But speaking to reporters afterward, Kobach emphasized that states are only being asked to send already-public information and called the Democrats’ criticism about voter suppression “bizarre.”

“The claim goes something like this: The commission will meet, then they’ll recommend things like photo ID or some other election security measure, then the states will adopt them. There’s your leap in logic. The commission does not have the ability to do a Jedi mind trick on a state legislature and force them to adopt anything,” said Kobach, the Republican secretary of state in Kansas.

“All the commission is doing is collecting data,” he added. “It may make recommendations, or I think at this point there’s a high possibility the commission makes no recommendations and they just say, ‘Here’s the data. States, do with it what you want.'”

Privacy advocates have raised concerns about the information being collected in one central place, although the commission has said the detailed data will not be made public and will be destroyed when the commission is done with it.

Kobach said 20 states have sent data so far. He said the commission hopes to use it to investigate possible cases of people voting in multiple states but said that will depend on how much information it receives.