Last night, in the third and final presidential debate, the Republican Party’s nominee, Donald Trump, refused to say whether he was prepared to accept the outcome of the election on November 8. This follows on several weeks of Mr. Trump and his surrogates making claims that the election is “rigged,” and calling on Trump supporters to “go and watch the polls.” Today, Michael Slater, president of the voting rights nonprofit Project Vote, issued the following statement in response:
“Last night, Mr. Trump took his utterly unsubstantiated claims about a ‘rigged’ election to horrifying new heights, by refusing to say whether he will accept the results of the election in November. ‘I will keep you in suspense,’ Mr. Trump said, and now we all wait in suspense to see whether the Republican Party’s nominee for the highest office in the land intends to respect and abide by the will of the American people.
“Donald Trump’s words demonstrate a reckless disregard for the peaceful transition of power, which has been the fundamental bedrock of American democracy for 240 years. And these comments only further the narrative he has been perpetuating for months: that, if he loses to Secretary Clinton on November 8, it can only be because of ‘voter fraud.’
“The claim that America has a widespread problem with ineligible people casting fraudulent ballots has been disproven so many times that it is scarcely worth discussing. Election experts don’t believe it, the American people don’t believe it, no credible media outlet believes it, and we doubt very much that Mr. Trump actually believes it.
“What Mr. Trump does know, and what has been proven—shamefully, and repeatedly, throughout American history—is that voter intimidation can be a very effective way for politicians to suppress voting by people who are likely to support their opponents. As much as Mr. Trump’s comments represent anticipatory sour grapes over the possible outcome of the election, they are also a last-ditch attempt to influence that election by preventing certain groups of Americans from voting.
“In his recent calls to his supporters to ‘to get every one of [their] friends’ and ‘go down to certain areas,’ Mr. Trump is not trying to ensure the integrity of our election system: he is trying to strike at it. His unfounded claims that the election is ‘rigged’—based on absolutely no credible evidence—are grossly irresponsible. His campaign’s suggestion that Trump supporters should intimidate and harass American voters at inner city polling places is dangerous and an affront to the rule of law. And his goals—to suppress the votes of people who might disagree with him, and undermine confidence in the election—are profoundly anti-democratic.
“Official poll watchers have an important role to play in our democracy, which is why poll monitors are carefully regulated in most states. There is absolutely no role in our democracy for random, biased supporters who just show up at the polls in minority neighborhoods to challenge and intimidate voters. Furthermore, challenging an elector’s right to vote on the basis of racial or ethnic profiling—as several Trump supporters have publically indicated they will do—violates the Voting Rights Act and the First, 14th, and 15th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
“Project Vote believes in American democracy. We believe it works, and we are profoundly offended by Mr. Trump’s insults to the hard-fought institution of the American electoral process. We are gravely concerned by his repeated suggestions that his supporters should interfere with that process by harassing and intimidating American voters. We categorically condemn Mr. Trump’s reckless, dog-whistling rhetoric, and we call on him to clarify his comments, respect the democratic process, and accept whatever decision the American people make in November.”
For more information and interviews, please contact Michael McDunnah at 202-905-1397.
