FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Rachel Barnhart: National Media Strategist
rbarnhart@represent.us / (413) 333-5656
FULL-PAGE NY TIMES LETTER
FROM REPRESENTUS TO TRUMP:
RESPECT ELECTION RESULT OR RESIGN
“The President suggests we delay the election. He pretends that vote-by-mail invites fraud while destroying the U.S. Postal Service from within. He refuses to affirm he will respect election results. If he is afraid of losing, the U.S. Constitution provides an alternative: resign”
FLORENCE, MASS. (August 9, 2020): RepresentUs, the nation’s leading right-left anti-corruption organization, called on President Donald Trump to abide by the Constitution and either commit to a free and fair election or resign in a letter that appeared as a full-page ad in today’s New York Times.
The letter marks a major shift for RepresentUs, which is a staunchly nonpartisan organization that has refrained from prominent criticism of President Trump.
“This isn’t partisanship, it's patriotism. If President Trump would rather dismantle our democracy than face a free and fair election, he must resign,” said Josh Silver, Co-Founder and CEO of RepresentUs.
The letter calls out President Trump's constant attacks on America’s elections including:
- Rebuffing evidence of foreign meddling in U.S. elections.
- Regularly making baseless assertions that mail-in voting is fraudulent or insecure.
- Refusing to assure the American people that he would accept the results of a free and fair election.
- Suggesting a delaying the election, disregarding the Constitution.
“Donald Trump is moving us towards a dystopian spectacle: the first time since the Civil War that free and fair elections and the peaceful transfer of power is in serious jeopardy. This transcends partisan politics, and every American must resist any attempt to undermine the U.S. Constitution,” continued Silver.
On Friday, the U.S. Postal Service announced a major reorganization, in which 23 executives have been displaced or reassigned. The overhaul is led by Trump-appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. Appointed in May, DeJoy has made alarming changes, such as banning employees from working overtime and making extra trips to ensure delivery. DeJoy is a Trump campaign mega-donor who also has between $30.1 million and $75.3 million invested in Postal Service competitors and contractors.
“The Postmaster General is clearly blowing up the postal service from within to undermine vote-by-mail and increase the value of his personal investments. For him, this is a win-win,” Silver said. “We cherish government integrity and the right of every American to vote. Those rights are threatened when the President allows conflicts of interest, misinforms voters, and undermines the election itself.”
You can see the full-page advertisement here.
"Democracy is bigger than any president. Bigger than any one person. No matter who's in the Oval Office or which party has power, we must protect America's democracy. The President's repeated assault on the integrity of our election is as unconscionable as it is unconstitutional,” said RepresentUs Co-Founder and Managing Director Joshua Graham Lynn.
RepresentUs works to change election and campaign finance laws to create a government that represents the American people; not lobbyists and special interests. The group is working to protect November’s election by urging Congress to fund safe and secure elections, and demanding that states expand mail-in voting and ensure safe and accessible polling places. RepresentUs is also supporting at least seven anti-corruption and pro-democracy reform campaigns across the country in 2020 in states including Massachusetts, Alaska, Virginia, and Missouri. RepresentUs and our ally organizations have won more than 120 election reform victories across the nation over the past three and a half years.
The fiercely nonpartisan organization brings together American conservatives and liberals whose commitment to democracy and the inalienable right to vote overcomes allegiance to any political party.
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RepresentUs is the nation’s largest grassroots anti-corruption campaign, bringing together conservatives, progressives, and everyone in between to pass anti-corruption laws in cities and states to stop political bribery, end secret money, and fix our broken elections.