WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) issued the following statement in response to President Trump’s Executive Order to create a commission to investigate voter fraud:
“Make no mistake about it – today’s executive order is a thinly veiled voter suppression effort. If President Trump was truly concerned about the integrity of our elections, he would focus his energy on making it easier for American citizens to vote and investigating cases of voter intimidation and suppression that occurs all too frequently in poor communities and communities of color.
“Instead, Trump has chosen to waste time and taxpayer dollars chasing a debunked myth. Even members of President Trump’s own party have said that there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud. In fact, you’re more likely to be struck by lightning than to find an example of in-person voter fraud.
“It’s particularly disturbing that the vice chair of this ‘election integrity’ commission is the architect of a number of voter suppression laws across the country, and the person responsible for implementing its findings – Attorney General Jeff Sessions – is a man who has been deliberately hostile to equal voting rights throughout his career.
“Generations of Americans have sweat, bled, and sacrificed their lives for the right to vote. It is incumbent upon us to remove the real impediments to voting rights, and stop efforts to restrict them, however disguised they may me.”