Black women denounce new Voting Commission

For Immediate Release
May 12, 2017
Contact: Loretta Kane (917-410-7242 or loretta@caminopr.com)

Statement from In Our Own Voice

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Yesterday, the White House announced the creation of a commission to investigate voter fraud, spurred by Trump’s unfounded claims of voting irregularities during the 2016 elections. Marcela Howell, Founder and Executive Director of In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda, issued the following statement:

“The president has established a commission to investigate his own trumped up charges of voter fraud. He has appointed a known and proven enemy of voter rights, Kansas Secretary of State Kobach, who — despite his allegations of widespread voting by noncitizens — has only prosecuted a small number of cases in his own state, to head this effort.

“Make no mistake that this commission is just another step in this administration’s voter suppression machine. Voter fraud is not the problem with U.S. elections; the wholesale disenfranchisement of voters is what threatens our democracy. Trump and his cohorts are pulling out all the stops to prevent people of color — especially Black people — from exercising our right to vote.

“Gerrymandering, unfair voter ID laws and intimidation at the polls, are among the tactics being used to prevent voters of color — U.S. citizens — from casting our votes. This new commission is another Trump sideshow meant to distract us from the real threats to our democracy — the truly illegal acts perpetrated against voters by our own government.

“We didn’t march and die fighting for our right to vote in the 60s only to have that right denied us by a president who didn’t even win the popular vote. We will not accept this new Jim Crow era — fueled by the racist, sexist and xenophobic rhetoric of Trump’s campaign and now by his policies.

“We call on elected officials to stop the assault on voting rights and we encourage voters across the country to unite in resistance by holding their elected representatives accountable and, most of all, by voting.”

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In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda is a national reproductive justice organization focused on lifting up the voices of Black women at the national and regional levels in our ongoing policy fight to secure reproductive justice for all women and girls. Our eight strategic partners include: Black Women for Wellness, Black Women’s Health Imperative, New Voices for Reproductive Justice, SisterLove, Inc. SisterReach, SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW, The Afiya Center and Women With A Vision.