1/06/2018
By: Sherrilyn Ifill
Source: Newsweek
President Donald Trump’s slapdash commission on election integrity, which he disbanded earlier this week, exists now only in the dustbin of history. But we should not assume that his administration’s attacks on voters of color are over.
Beginning during his campaign, Trump has consistently peddled the odious narrative that voters of color are cheaters. During a rally before a nearly all-white audience in rural Pennsylvania, the then-candidate encouraged his supporters to “go down to certain areas” in the state to ensure “other people don’t come in and vote five times.” Many took that to mean African-American voters in places like Philadelphia, a majority-minority city, and county that voted overwhelmingly against Trump.
In Wisconsin, just as his campaign was struggling in the polls, Trump fanned fears of voter fraud when he suggested that, come Election Day, there would be scores of “illegal immigrants voting all over the country.” And then he offered the unfounded claim that noncitizen voters handed President Barack Obama his historic victory in 2008 by helping to tip the swing state of North Carolina in his favor.
Read the full piece here.
