DNC Launches Commission to Counter Trump's 'Election Integrity' Sham

[bigtree]

Katrina vandenHeuvel? @KatrinaNation
Democrats Are Launching a Commission to Protect American Democracy From Trump


In response to Trump’s “election integrity” commission, the DNC is going on offense on voting rights

To counteract the Trump administration’s “election integrity” commission, the Democratic National Committee is launching a new Commission on Protecting American Democracy from the Trump Administration. While the Trump commission plans to focus on so-called “fraudulent voting,” the DNC says its commission will debunk the myth that voter fraud is widespread, document the impact of voter suppression efforts in the 2016 election, and propose solutions to expand voting rights.

Trump’s commission is “part of the continuing dissemination of alternative facts,” DNC Chair Tom Perez says. “The commission itself is fraudulent, in the sense that voter fraud is a virtually non-existent phenomenon in this country.” Perez calls it “nothing but a sham to justify the GOP’s voter suppression efforts across the country…. Our commission will be ready to counter every move that the Trump administration makes to silence eligible voters. We simply cannot trust Trump, Jeff Sessions, or anyone in this administration to protect the integrity of our democracy.”


The commission is part of the DNC’s new Voter Protection and Empowerment Unit, which represents the party’s most ambitious effort to safeguard voting rights. “With the relentless attacks on voting rights that have become a staple in the playbook of the Republican Party, it’s absolutely imperative to develop a robust and permanent infrastructure within the Democratic Party for voter protection and empowerment,” Perez says.


 “We have to develop a much better capacity to play both offense and defense on voting rights,” Perez says. That means challenging restrictive voting laws in the courts and through on the ground organizing in states like North Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin while also pushing for policies that would expand access to the ballot, like automatic voter registration. (As assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Obama Justice Department, Perez filed suit against strict voter-ID laws in Texas and South Carolina.) Perez also mentioned more far-reaching solutions, like abolishing the Electoral College through the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.


read more: https://www.thenation.com/article/democrats-launching-commission-protect-american-democracy-trump/

[Mrs. Overall]

1. Glad to read this about the DNC.

[Gothmog]

2. The GOP is the party of voter suppression and relies on voter suppression to win races

I am glad that the DNC is fighting back

[tomp]

3. again, no comment on the integrity of the voting machines themselves.

that's an ongoing mistake by the dems.

[Plucketeer]

5. I can not agree more!

Unless and until we get a standardized voting system - one with voting machines that can't be hacked, wiped, swiped and that produce a verified paper trail, there'll be cheating going on. The verified machine vote switching simply CAN NOT be tolerated - the recount bullshit such as we saw in WI, MI and PA can not be tolerated - at least not at the federal level.

If we can spend trillions on weapons systems that generals say we don't need, why can't we have a federally mandated and operated universal voting system???

[Raven123]

6. Why bother with voting machines?

Paper ballots that can be scanned are just as good (and better in places that have no paper trail with their current systems). Plus we are not held hostage by the company(ies) who manufacture the voting machines. It is time to use technology thoughtfully rather than knee-jerk in agreement with those who claim that electronic is better.

[Plucketeer]

14. I said "voting machines"

but the truth is, a pencil or a pen can be a voting machine too. Hows about I say: We definitely need SOMETHING different from the fucked up - hodge-podge we're cursed with at present.

[malaise]

4. About time

Rec

[rickford66]

7. Seventeen years too late.

Voter fraud is etched in too many minds. I hope I'm wrong.

[surrealAmerican]

8. long overdue

... and the problem is much bigger than Trump. Voter suppression is mostly a state by state issue. If we focus on Trump, we risk missing most of this issue, which falls squarely on governors and state legislatures, with some help from the courts.

[MrPurple]

10. But, Trump's panel is there for a reason, prob to proviede pseudoscience for even more suppression

[Wounded Bear]

9. It's about time they got on this...

long, long overdue.

[mcar]

11. K&R

[MrPurple]

12. It would be nice if they partnered with the ACLU, top universities

to emphasize that their data on lack of voter fraud is not partisan

[certainot]

13. unless they're going to do something about rw radio they're not

for real because that's where most of the fraud fraud was created. years of it.

that was largely the reason the republicans have a candidate with a ridiculous wall. they've been screaming about illegal brown people, most loudly since rove got into the white house, for the most part to sell voter suppression legislation.

and they were spectacularly successful because dems and the left ignore talk radio

they don't even poll for talk radio, even with a talk radio president

[Gothmog]

15. Sewell helps lead Democratic election commission

This Commission is needed http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2017/05/30/sewell-helps-lead-democratic-election-commission/102323300/

WASHINGTON — Alabama Rep. Terri Sewell will serve as vice chair of a new Democratic “watchdog” panel set up to counter President Donald Trump’s new election fraud commission.

The Democratic National Committee announced plans last Thursday to create a commission to “discredit” Trump’s presidential advisory group.

“I don’t think that we can trust this administration when it comes to protecting voting rights or for getting the facts right when it comes to incidences of voter fraud,” Sewell said Tuesday. “The point of this commission is really to serve as a check to president Trump’s (advisory group). It is our way of making sure that the real facts get out when it comes to issues of voting. We know that voter suppression occurs way more than voter fraud.”

Earlier this month, Trump signed an executive order setting up a commission to study his allegations of voter fraud in the 2016 presidential election. Trump has claimed there were 3 million to 5 million fraudulent votes.

Sewell, voting rights groups and state election officials have disputed claims of massive voter fraud.

The White House has said it’s important to look into "vulnerabilities" in election systems, including voter fraud. Vice President Mike Pence is chairman of Trump’s bipartisan “Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity." Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who has pushed for tighter election laws, will be the commission's vice chair.

Tom Perez, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, called Trump’s commission a “sham.”

“Our commission will be ready to counter every move that the Trump administration makes to silence eligible voters,” he said in a statement. “We simply cannot trust Trump, Jeff Sessions, or anyone in this administration to protect the integrity of our democracy.”