The fact that President-elect Donald Trump continues to harp about the results of an election that he won has advocates bracing for a full-frontal assault on voting rights the next four years, The Washington Post reported.
This past Sunday alone, Trump tweeted that he would have won the popular vote if not for the "millions of people who voted illegally" and alleged actual voter fraud in California, New Hampshire and Ohio.
For voting rights advocates, that's code for keeping minorities and low-income voters out of voting booths.
"They don't want us to participate in this democracy," Cristóbal Alex, president of the Latino Victory Project, told the Post. "We are gearing up for what will be the biggest fight of our lifetime."
Or as Sen. Bernie Sanders said Tuesday night on a late-night show, Trump's message is "scary."
"First of all, it's delusional, it's totally insane," Sanders said on the "Conan" show. "When he says that, he's really sending a signal to Republicans all over this country, Republican leaders, and what he's saying is: 'We have got to suppress the vote, we have got to make it harder for poor people, people of color, immigrants, elderly people, to participate because they may be voting against us.'"
The Post reported advocates are watching for a few potential tactics a Trump administration could employ:
- Not file lawsuits against states where voter suppression is alleged.
- Press for more purges of voter rolls.
- Try to pass legislation through a Republican-held Congress.
"To suggest that vote fraud is rampant across our country invites states to put in place laws making voting more difficult, and that is incredibly anti-democratic," Kristen Clarke, executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law told the Post.
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