DNC Chairman Tim Kaine and DNC Vice Chair for Voter Registration and Participation Donna Brazile issued the following statement on yesterday’s ruling by the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey keeping in place a consent decree barring the Republican National Committee from voter intimidation and asserting that Republicans still have an incentive to engage in such illegal practices. Late last year the RNC asked that the consent decree, which it agreed to in 1982, be nullified, going so far as to argue that because the President and U.S. Attorney General are African American, there is no longer any reason for Republicans to be subject to limits on efforts to engage in “ballot security measures.”
“Yesterday’s ruling is a victory for all Americans who believe that every eligible citizen should have the right to vote and have their vote counted. It also represents a resounding repudiation of the Republican Party’s trumped up claims of voter fraud. Our great nation was founded on the principles of equality and freedom, and our founders envisioned the right to vote as central to our ideals. Yet for years, Republicans have engaged in deplorable practices that intimidate voters and make it more difficult for them to cast their ballot.
“This is wrong, and it is illegal. As the court made clear, these types of actions stand in the way of Americans’ fundamental rights under the Constitution of the United States. Republicans would be better served trying to engage minority and under-represented voters rather than trying to intimidate them. Yet there is overwhelming evidence that these types of practices still occur, that Republicans have engaged in them in recent elections and that without a consent decree barring such actions Republicans will continue to have an incentive to engage in them. That Republicans, who attempted to use foreclosure lists in the 2008 election to deny people the right to vote in Michigan, even asked the court to nullify this decree, shows just how eager they are to continue engaging in practices to suppress the rightful votes of thousands of American citizens.
“These are not the ideals that our country was founded on, and they should not be tolerated. We applaud yesterday’s decision and recommit ourselves to fighting to ensure that the right to vote is fully protected. And we encourage Republicans to work with us to reform our electoral system to remove any impediments to voting and to ensure our voting rights laws are enforced consistent with the law.”
