LDF Strongly Condemns Raid of Ohio Voting Rights Organization Intended to Spread Fear and Chaos Ahead of Midterm Elections

Read a PDF of our statement here.

On June 11, FBI agents raided offices of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, an organization that works to register voters across the state with the goal of creating a functional multiracial democracy. Federal agents also searched multiple staff members' homes during the raids.

In response, the Legal Defense Fund issued the following statement:

"Voter intimidation, suppression, and harassment at the hands of law enforcement are familiar tactics to Black voters. The law enforcement raids on the Ohio Organizing Collaborative follow recent efforts from the Trump administration to promote debunked claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election and to act on unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in the upcoming midterms, including actions that would disproportionately harm Black voters.

"The efforts of this administration to intimidate, harass, and suppress voters, and attack organizations that serve them, must cease immediately.

"They are insidious echoes of the centuries of violent discrimination meant to undermine Black political power. LDF firmly denounces these raids and all other actions designed to intentionally undermine the promise and integrity of our multi-racial democracy."

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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation's first civil rights legal organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957, though it was founded under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall while he was at the NAACP. LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) is a division of LDF that undertakes innovative research and houses LDF's archive. In all media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF (do not include NAACP) and refer to the Institute as LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute or TMI.