Issued May 11, 2017
WASHINGTON—SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry issued the following statement on President Trump’s announcement that he is creating a commission to investigate allegations of voter fraud:
“Self-interested politicians have rigged our democratic system by erecting barriers to voting that have kept millions of Americans, particularly people of color, from exercising this most fundamental right, under the pretense of unfounded allegations of voter fraud.
“In just the past few years, numerous infringements on the right to vote include the Supreme Court and Congress gutting key pieces of the Voting Rights Act and neglecting to restore key provisions. For the President of the United States to invest our nation’s resources in a commission that will only result in more unfounded allegations is a disservice to those Americans whose right to vote has been under attack.
“This attempt at federally funded voter suppression by the Trump administration follows years of disenfranchisement by self-interested politicians, and we will not stand for it. SEIU members and our communities will not be silenced and will continue standing up against attempts to rig the system against working families.”