New York, NY – The White House announced tonight it is disbanding the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law released the following statements in response:
“This commission started as a tragedy and ended as a farce,” said Michael Waldman, the president of the Brennan Center. “It was a colossal waste of taxpayer money from the very beginning. It failed to find any evidence of the millions of illegal voters claimed by President Trump. But this should be more than just a somewhat-comic ending to a misguided effort. The claim of widespread voter fraud in the United States is in fact, fraud. The demise of this commission should put this issue to rest.”
“The government should be trying to protect the right to vote,” said Myrna Pérez, deputy director of the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program. “Too many states have used voter fraud as a justification for laws that keep eligible voters from making their voice heard at the polls. This panel’s clumsy efforts to illegally obtain voter data showed a disregard for voters, their privacy, and state law.”
The Brennan Center filed lawsuits on behalf of voters and civic organizations in Indiana, Texas, and Utah under state privacy laws to block the illegal transfer of voter data to the Commission. Pursuant to these lawsuits, no data had yet been sent over from these states. In fact, in Texas, a state court had blocked the sending of the disputed information.
For more information on the lawsuits, click here. For more information on the numerous controversies the commission faced since its creation, click here.
To schedule an interview with a Brennan Center expert, contact Rebecca Autrey at rebecca.autrey@nyu.edu or 646–292–8316.
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