Throughout our history, the country has marched toward a more perfect union by expanding access to the ballot. That progress has helped enshrine our core values of justice, fairness and inclusivity, and slowly strengthened America’s foundation. The first eight months of the Trump administration have shaken that foundation. President Donald Trump’s bogus assertion that millions of people voted illegally has been widely debunked. The sham commission he created to validate this absurd claim has already suppressed voting. Its attempt to create a national database through its unprecedented request for personal voter information, such as partial Social Security numbers and party affiliation, led thousands of voters to cancel their registrations.
Election officials from both parties rejected and condemned the commission’s unprecedented overreach. But the commission’s membership revealed its true agenda. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, Hans von Spakovsky, and several other Republican commissioners, including former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, have devoted their careers to voter suppression.
On the very same day of the commission’s data request, the Trump Justice Department sent a separate letter to 44 states demanding that they provide extensive voter information in what appears to be a prelude to voter purges.
Now, the Trump Justice Department is at it again, with its brief in the Ohio voting rights case Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute, to be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 8.
Full Article: Ohio’s illegal voter purges shouldn’t be getting Trump Justice Department’s blessing: Vanita Gupta (Opinion) | cleveland.com.