Today, the DNC’s Commission to Protect American Democracy from the Trump Administration held a press call to explain how the Trump administration’s voter fraud commission is working to suppress the fundamental democratic rights of Americans and to lay out the steps that Democrats are taking to fight back. 

Here’s a few highlights from today’s speakers:

Tom Perez: “Make no mistake: this isn’t a war on voter fraud, it’s a war on voters.  And it’s only being waged by Republicans, and we will not let our guard down for a moment.  As Democrats, our goal is the engage every eligible American voter as an active participant in our democracy.  We want to make it easier for people who are eligible to vote, not harder for them to vote.  And that means fighting voter suppression tactics to create free, fair, and accessible elections.  We must protect the one right that preserves all others—the right to vote.”

Jason Kander: “Instead of building themselves around policies that reach out to communities like minorities and low incomes folks and the elderly and the disabled, instead of doing that, they’re just going to exclude those folks from democracy.  That’s their solution.  And it’s cynical, and it’s wrong, and it’s un-American.

“We’ve had this argument before in America.  Folks marched across a bridge, American heroes did, in Selma.  And they faced batons, they faced down dogs and hoses, and it was all for the simple idea that in America everybody counts.  We shouldn’t go backward.  We should only go forward on these issues.”

Terri Sewell: “Don’t be fooled by Trump, Kobach, and the Republican Party.  They’re not trying to protect the integrity of democracy. They’re trying to rig the system.  They know that when we increase opportunities to vote, Republican candidates lose.

“Look at what actually happened in New Hampshire: Senator Maggie Hassan didn’t win because of voter fraud.  She won because more eligible voters had the opportunity to cast their ballots and exercise their constitution rights.  She won because her message and her policies resonated with the people of New Hampshire.”

Alex Padilla: “Study after study, report and report, and even previous commissions have shown that voter fraud is extremely rare and always very isolated.  That is proof that the current protections are working, but we have policies and technologies in place to allow us to facilitate the participation in the political process to more and more citizens.  We have a moral obligation to do that.”

The DNC launched their voting rights commission this May in order to combat the Trump administration’s voter fraud misinformation campaign by debunking the myth of widespread voter fraud, demonstrating the difficulty of voting in areas affected by voter suppression, and highlighting and promoting best practices that make voting easier.  The commission was created in response to the real threat to democracy posed by the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.