Rock the Vote Responds to Kobach’s First Step to Enact National Voter Suppression
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, June 30, 2017
WASHINGTON — Rock the Vote President Carolyn DeWitt issued the following statement in response to Kris Kobach’s request of sensitive voter information for voters nationwide:
“We join our colleagues in the pro-voting community in condemning yesterday’s actions of the President’s Election Commission and Kris Kobach, who requested highly sensitive information on nearly every voter in America, in what appears to be the first step in a national voter suppression effort.
Given Kris Kobach’s history as a deceitful voter suppressor who notoriously champions false claims of voter fraud, this call to compile and centralize sensitive information will be used to wrongfully remove eligible Black, Hispanic, minority, and young Americans from voter rolls, based on the fact that his matching program Crosscheck is already known to disenfranchise these groups.
This highly alarming and unusual request to compile sensitive voter information at the federal level — including social security numbers, political affiliations, voting history, and prior felony convictions — undermines the integrity of our elections.
Both the President and Kobach are crafting a ‘solution’ in search of a problem. While the President refuses to acknowledge the legitimate results of the 2016 popular vote, and Kobach continues to lie about widespread voter fraud (despite having personally found only 7 convictions out of 84 million votes cast), this Commission wastes tax dollars and degrades our election infrastructure instead of addressing the real issue of voter suppression and increasing the effectiveness of our electoral process.
To report complaints or any suspicious activity regarding the Election Commission or Kris Kobach, please contact 1–866-OUR-VOTE, managed by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
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Contact: Sara Tabatabaie, 617–775–4600, sara@rockthevote.com
