Hillary Clinton said Monday that anyone who denies that racial discrimination continues to plague American elections “must not be paying attention,” calling for a renewed effort to protect voting rights in what was the first in a series of planned policy speeches by the former secretary of state and likely 2016 contender.
Pushing back against what she called “phantom” claims of voter fraud, Clinton told those attending the American Bar Association’s convention in San Francisco that last year’s elections saw a “a sweeping effort to construct new obstacles to voting.
“Anyone who says that racial discrimination is no longer a problem in American elections must not be paying attention,” Clinton said, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.
She lamented that since the Supreme Court’s ruling to gut the Voting Rights Act “we have seen an unseemly rush to enact or enforce laws that will make it harder for millions of our fellow Americans to vote.”
Clinton announced the series of policy speeches on Monday, fueling more speculation that she is gearing up for a White House bid. Her next speech is scheduled to be held next month in Philadelphia.