President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued strong warnings about the threat of voter fraud in Tuesday’s elections. The statements echoed the president’s baseless claims that massive voter fraud marred his 2016 election and prompting accusations that his administration is trying to intimidate voters, reports the Washington Post. In a tweet, Trump said that law enforcement has been “strongly notified” to watch for “ILLEGAL VOTING.” He promised that anyone caught voting improperly would be subjected to “Maximum Criminal Penalties.” Sessions said “fraud in the voting process will not be tolerated. Fraud also corrupts the integrity of the ballot.” Trump falsely claimed that voter fraud is commonplace, saying, “There are a lot of people — a lot of people — my opinion, and based on proof — that try and get in illegally and actually vote illegally.” There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the U.S., the Post says.
Voting rights advocates denounced Trump’s remarks as a blatant attempt to intimidate voters on the eve of Election Day. “I find this kind of conduct incredibly anti-patriotic,” said Kristen Clarke of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which successfully challenged several new voting restrictions this year. Anticipating possible problems, political parties, interest groups and voting rights organizations have organized “war rooms” to watch Tuesday’s elections unfold and recruited thousands of volunteer lawyers to monitor precincts. Sessions said the Justice Department will follow its usual protocol of sending monitors across the U.S. to protect against voter suppression, intimidation and discrimination; staff will travel to 35 jurisdictions in 19 states.