LOS ANGELES (Jan. 27, 2017) — Asian Americans Advancing Justice (Advancing Justice), an affiliation of five civil rights organizations, is challenging the Trump administration on its anticipated executive order to investigate the baseless claim of widespread voter fraud.
The organizations believe the investigation is an attempt to move toward voter suppression tactics in future elections. Advancing Justice issued the following statement:
“The call for an investigation into understanding voter fraud is nothing more than a veiled attempt to declare open season on voting rights. Widespread voter fraud is not occurring, but the possibility that the Trump administration, including U.S. attorney general nominee, Jeff Sessions — accused of inventing voter fraud charges to prosecute voting rights activists — could use the probe as a chance to further voter suppression is the real threat to democracy and future elections.
Advancing Justice has significant concerns that the desire to probe specifically in “urban areas” for the existence of voter fraud is code for finding ways to intimidate and suppress voting in communities of color, particularly among Asian American, African American, and Latino voters.
Asian American voters have often been discriminated against for being seen as ‘perpetual foreigners’ and have additional hurdles to reaching the ballot box, such as being asked for additional proof of citizenship or denied language assistance. Previous investigations, funded on the backs of taxpayers, and study after study have found no evidence of voter fraud; it is a waste of resources to go down this road again. There have been four cases of voter fraud confirmed so far out of 135 million votes cast in 2016.
If this drumbeat of unsubstantiated allegations continues, then any investigation must be done independently and in a bi-partisan manner with no ties to the Trump administration or current and future nominees. If an independent investigation moves forward, it should also determine the number of eligible voters kept from casting their rightful ballot because of voter ID laws, rollbacks on early voting, and other laws passed since the Shelby County v. Holder decision that makes it harder for people to vote.
Any investigation into issues related to voting should start with the full restoration of the Voting Rights Act and end with finding solutions to voter intimidation and suppression.”
Asian Americans Advancing Justice is a national affiliation of five leading organizations advocating for the civil and human rights of Asian Americans and other underserved communities to promote a fair and equitable society for all. The affiliation’s members are: Advancing Justice – AAJC (Washington, D.C.), Advancing Justice – Los Angeles, Advancing Justice – Atlanta, Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus (San Francisco), and Advancing Justice – Chicago.
Well. It is here–the Trump Administration–and it is doing exactly what I knew it would do. Folks like us who are not whites will be seeing this all the time now that Make America White Again is the mission of this administration. I really can’t blame Trump because he is doing exactly what he promised to do in the campaigns.
The people to blame are the third party people like Kline and Johnson and liberals like Sanders and their supporters. Given a historic chance to bury the Republican Party, Sanders, Johnson and Steins and their people instead insisted on personal gains and narrow political ideology. They somehow could not see what a Trump administration would do. Instead of uniting behind Hillary Clinton, they successfully planted hatred towards her and convinced many of their followers to not vote for her. In an election this close, if you did not vote for Hillary you voted for Trump. The result was a historic chance was missed. Instead of burying the Republicans and conservatism, liberalism is pushed back for generations while conservative, white privilege politics rule.
People of color should be prepared for more hateful and discriminatory politics from Washington. If you want to point finger, don’t blame Trump and his camp. He is doing what he promised to do. Blame those selfish and narrow-minded liberals for blowing it for all of us. Much like when they helped elect GWB, they helped put in a racist like Trump in power. Of course many of these liberals are white so they have nothing to worry about. But people like us are paying the price.
No. Get over yourself Bob San. By voting 3rd party I fulfilled my right/duty to vote for the candidate I believed was most qualified for the job. I will vote 3rd party again in 2020 if so I see fit.