Rock the Vote Responds to Executive Order Establishing Voting Commission

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, May 11, 2017

In response to The President’s executive order creating a commission to investigate our electoral process, Rock the Vote President Carolyn DeWitt issued the following statement:

“Today Donald Trump has taken the first step toward what so many of us have feared for months: The President wants to make it harder for low-income, minority, and young Americans to vote, and he’s masking his agenda in this new executive order.

This executive order, in part, directs the Commission to identify ‘practices that undermine the American people’s confidence in the integrity of the voting process.’

Given our nearly three decades of working to expand the right to vote, we’d be happy to advise the Commission on this issue, specifically on the fact that pushing a completely false narrative of voter fraud degrades the legitimacy of our electoral process and has historically been used to justify voter suppression and discrimination in our democracy.

The last time the federal government investigated voter fraud, it found a 0.00000013% rate of improper voting. There was no evidence of widespread voter fraud then, and there is none today.

The President may not accept the fact that he legitimately lost the popular vote, but it is un-American for elected officials to pick and choose their own voters. We will continue to speak truth to power and champion pro-voting values, and we invite this new commission to take note.”

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Media Contact:

Sara Tabatabaie, sara@rockthevote.com , 617.775.4600