Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), issued the following statement in response to President Trump’s statement about voting:
“The President of the United States is using his extraordinary platform to stoke fear and intimidation, warning that every level of government is watching for voter fraud – an issue that only exists in the minds of those seeking to disfranchise voters of color. The president is perpetuating a harmful and divisive myth, and he is sending a clear message to voters of color that he may be prepared to use the power of the federal government to punish them for participating in their democracy.
“Let’s be clear: studies, federal courts, and government investigations have widely disproved the existence of significant voter fraud. It is a myth that numerous politicians, including the president, have used to justify efforts to discourage or prevent Americans of color from exercising their right to vote, such as the president’s own sham election commission, or Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s recent blockage of 107,000 voter registration applications.
“We condemn his attempts to stoke fear, and we remind the president that he swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, which guarantees that no citizen will be denied the ballot on account of the color of their skin. Furthermore, voter intimidation is illegal and LDF, along with countless other civil rights groups, will continue to challenge any activity designed to interfere with right of voters to cast ballots and have their votes counted.”
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Founded in 1940, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is the nation’s first civil and human rights law organization and has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund or LDF.
