ROCK THE VOTE RESPONDS TO UNSUBSTANTIATED CLAIMS OF VOTER FRAUD

Statement of Carolyn DeWitt, President of Rock the Vote

We have a patriotic duty to be fiercely skeptical of any individual or institution that spreads unsupported claims of widespread voter fraud to undermine and threaten our democracy.

There is absolutely no evidence or credible allegation that voter fraud affects our elections. Out of our country’s 51 state election officials, including 31 Republicans and 20 Democrats, none of them reported widespread voter fraud as an issue in the 2016 election.

It was not that long ago that President Trump’s own team argued that voter fraud did not occur during the 2016 general election, in response to presidential candidate Jill Stein’s recount efforts. Now President Trump is making unsubstantiated claims of massive voter fraud in order to justify investigating states that he lost, namely California and New York.

This wasteful investigation signals an aggressive pending attack on voting rights, potentially purging eligible Americans from voter rolls and instituting restrictive, anti-voting policies.

If President Trump would like to learn more about voter fraud as Sean Spicer suggests, perhaps his team can begin with the reports of investigations that have already been conducted, including an investigation under President George W. Bush in which the U.S. Department of Justice searched and found a rate of voter fraud of .00000132 percent over two federal elections with more than 197 million votes cast.

The right to vote is not a partisan issue. It’s an American issue, and to play selfish politics with the corner stone of our democracy is beyond deceptive — it’s disgraceful.

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Contact:

Sara Tabatabaie (617) 775–4600