Democrats Aim To Block Funding For Trump's Election Commission

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Democrat from Hawaii, discuss their bill that would block funding for President Trump's election commission. (Photo: Deborah Barfield Berry, USA TODAY)

Democrats called President Trump’s election commission a “sham’’ and a waste of taxpayer’s money and introduced a bill Wednesday to block funding for the panel.

“This is a fraud,” said Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. "It is a sham."

Earlier this year, Trump set up a commission to study allegations of voter fraud in last year’s presidential election. Trump claims last year’s election included up to 3 million to 5 million fraudulent voters.

Supporters of the "Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity,'' mostly Republicans, said it will look at practices that undermine confidence in federal elections, including rampant voter fraud.

Democrats, election officials and voting rights groups have disputed those claims.Civil rights groups launched legal challenges to block the commission. The Democratic National Committee recently set up its own commission to counter Trump’s panel.

Booker and other Democrats said Trump's commission should instead focus on voter suppression efforts and Russia's interference in last year’s elections.

The bicameral Democratic bill, the “Anti-Voter Suppression Act," would block federal funding for the commission.

Booked acknowledged the measure is a "long shot'' in the Republican-controlled Congress, but he said lawmakers must speak up.

“It would be highly irresponsible for senators or congressional members to remain silent,’’ he said. “It is just and right that at a time when we see, I think, efforts to undermine the most basic Constitutional rights, which is the right to vote and participate in this democracy, that no Senator, that no House member should be silent. ”

Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, (center), said the right to vote is critical to American democracy. (Photo: Deborah Barfield Berry, USA TODAY)

Rep. Cedric Richmond, R-La., chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said for many people, the right to vote "is their only voice in the democracy."

“The one thing we cannot do is sit back and let anyone take us backwards," said Richmond, also a member of the House Judiciary Committee.

He said the makeup of the commission, which includes Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the vice chair and a supporter of more restrictive voter laws, "should terrify every American that’s it’s taking this country back to a place that we don’t want to go.’’

Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Democrat from Hawaii and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the commission "is based on a lie."

She said the commission aims to suppress voter turnout, particularly among minorities. “Let’s just call a spade a spade,’’ she said.

Democrats praised dozens of state election officials – Republicans and Democrats - for refusing to provide the commission with information about voters in their states. The commission requested the information last month.

SOURCE: USA TODAY