Representative Elijah Cummings Challenges True the Vote

Representative Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, sent his second letter today demanding True the Vote reveal their plan to deny eligible voters the right to vote. But True the Vote continues to mislead.

In his first letter to Catherine Engelbrecht, True the Vote's director, on October 4th, Representative Cummings made his concerns clear.

Unfortunately, True the Vote, its volunteers, and its affiliated groups have a horrendous record of filing inaccurate voter registration challenges, causing legitimate voters—through no fault of their own—to receive letters from local election officials notifying them that their registrations have been challenged and requiring them to take steps to remedy false accusations against them.

Rep. Cummings went on to detail the numerous instances of reported True the Vote malfeasance in Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Ohio. In response, he requested documentation of the sources of True the Vote's voter fraud concerns, the training that they are providing volunteers, and the number of poll watchers that they'll field from Ms. Engelbrecht. Unsurprisingly, Ms. Engelbrecht obfuscated, refusing to turn over any evidence in defense of her claims of rampant in-person voter fraud.

Today, Representative Cummings issued his request with a sterner tone:

If you are truly committed to transparency in our nation's voting process—and if you continue to deny that your organization is challenging thousands of legitimate voters across the country for partisan political purposes—then you should have no reason to withhold documents from Congress about your activities.

True the Vote won't respond, of course, because there scant evidence of voter fraud at polling places. Previously, Demos called out True the Vote and similar groups for engaging in reckless and dangerous voter intimidation. They continue to be a threat today, even if they're unlikely to reach their goal of enlisting a million volunteers on election day.

As election day approaches, voters should be vigilant for signs of voter intimidation by groups like True the Vote. They should report any abuse to the Election Protection Coalition, which was founded to protect voters from abuse, at their website or at 1-866-OUR-VOTE.