Washington, D.C. – Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) today issued the following statement on a recent Heritage Foundation memorandum on non-citizen voting.

I have recently been made aware of a Heritage Foundation “Legal Memorandum” authored by failed FEC nominee Hans von Spakovsky entitled “The Threat of Non-Citizen Voting.” After reviewing this “legal” memorandum, I’ve come to the realization that it is nothing more than political fear mongering masquerading as scholarly research. I’d go so far as to characterize it as intellectual fraud. The report cites a few anecdotal sources as evidence that undocumented immigrants are actively working to undermine our election systems. Little verifiable evidence exists to support such claims. By far, the largest problem facing our voting systems is not non-citizen voting, it is the continued disenfranchisement of minority and working poor Americans.

Republican operatives have continually used “voter fraud” as a way to justify their own efforts to disfranchise minority voters. This memo is yet another piece of this disinformation campaign, which is designed to stoke the fears of Americans. After participating in numerous hearings and listening to countless hours of testimony on our elections process, the true fear is that Americans from all across the country are being actively denied a voice in our political process. In light of recent votes by my Republican colleagues in the House it’s also becoming quite clear that they prefer disenfranchisement.

Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren is serving her seventh term in Congress representing most of the City of San Jose and Santa Clara County.  She serves as Chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law. She also Chairs the House Administration Subcommittee on Elections and serves on the House Homeland Security Committee.  Congresswoman Lofgren is Chair of the California Democratic Congressional Delegation consisting of 34 Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives from California.