January, 04 2018, 07:45am EDT
Score Another Victory for the Democratic Resistance: The Pence-Kobach Voter Suppression Commission Is Disbanded
Statement of Robert Weissman, President, Public Citizen.
WASHINGTON
The Pence-Kobach Commission was itself a fraud, designed not to protect the integrity of the vote but to intimidate voters, especially people of color, and suppress the vote. While it's entirely possible that President Trump convinced himself that voter fraud cost him the popular vote, not only does no serious person believe that occurred, but no honest and knowledgeable person believes there is a problem of voter fraud.
There are serious election integrity problems in the United States. Vast numbers of people - especially people of color, low-income persons and students - are denied the franchise, by design, because of voter suppression measures that have spread across the country in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's gutting of the Voting Rights Act. And in states like Florida, felons who have served their time are denied the right to vote by law. There are major concerns about the integrity of voting systems, with old and vulnerable technology in use across the country. And a tiny handful of Big Money contributors continue to fundamentally distort elections from expressions of the will of the people into theater staged by the oligarchy.
Solutions are at hand to deal with all of these problems, but the Pence-Kobach Commission had no interest in those solutions or even acknowledging those real problems. Instead, it was set up to offer dangerous solutions (more voter suppression) to solve a non-existent problem (voter fraud).
The White House's statement on the dismantling of the commission was uncharacteristically truthful. It is being disbanded because states refused to collaborate, and it was bogged down in litigation and a lightning rod for opposition. Score another victory for the democratic resistance, which shut down one of the more shameful political projects in American history.
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
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