Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon announced a sweeping effort to uphold federal voting laws.
“Our constitutional duty is to protect the right to vote for all Americans. Sixty years ago, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to confront the brutal reality that too many Americans were being denied their rightful access to the ballot,” she said, explaining that the Voting Rights Act was a “catalyst for necessary change.”
“This landmark law removed barriers to voting. It outlawed poll taxes and literacy tests and gave the federal government the tools to stop discriminatory barriers at the ballot box,” Dhillon added, explaining that the Trump administration is committed to protecting “equal and transparent ballot access with vigilance and resolve. We are investigating violations of federal voting laws.”
The Trump DOJ pledged to ensure that each state has clean voter rolls and will challenge efforts that aim to suppress election integrity. “We are attacking illegal race-based gerrymandering, and we are protecting ballot access for all Americans,” Dhillon noted.
Discussing election concerns, Dhillon added, “We have notified Texas of grave concerns about congressional districts drawn with racial motivations, and we are suing other jurisdictions where there is evidence of ineligible voters on their voter rolls.”
“Our job is to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat,” she said. “On this anniversary, we honor the Voting Rights Act not just by remembering it, but by enforcing it for all Americans. And that’s my promise to you.”
The DOJ recently filed a lawsuit against the North Carolina State Board of Elections for failing to follow federal election law. The lawsuit alleges that more than 200,000 people may be inappropriately included on the state’s voter rolls, lacking necessary identification. According to the DOJ, the state violated the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).
