Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman issued the following statement:
“No matter how many times President Trump claims otherwise, voter fraud is an imaginary problem.
“In fact, my office found zero substantiated claims of voter fraud in New York last year, as I detailed in my letter to Congress.
“The issue isn’t voter fraud; it’s voter suppression – and in places like New York, it’s happening legally, as a result of our broken system.
“New York should be leading the nation when it comes to voting rights. Yet our registration and voting systems are an affront to our democracy.
“It’s time for Albany to finally pass my New York Votes Act, which would protect and expand New Yorkers’ voting rights through common sense reforms like early voting, automatic and same-day registration, and more. And instead of convening an unnecessary commission on “election integrity,” Washington should immediately act to restore the Voting Rights Act and the critical protections it provides.
Re “Washington should immediately act to restore the Voting Rights Act and the critical protections it provides”: No new legislation is needed. The Supreme Court struck down only one provision in the Voting Rights Act — which was indeed unconstitutional, and which was never a permanent part of the Act anyway — and there are plenty of other voting-rights laws available to ensure that the right to vote is not violated. What’s more, the principal bill that has been drafted is bad legislation. For example, it does not protect all races equally from discrimination; it contains much that has nothing to do with the Supreme Court’s decision; and it itself violates the Constitution by prohibiting practices that are not actually racially discriminatory but only have racially disproportionate effects. The bill is also not really bipartisan; at Senate hearings, it was clear that no Republican there would favor it, because it is designed to give a partisan advantage to the Left.