Barack Obama · 2009-2017 term
Ban deceptive election practices and voter intimidation
Obama supported stronger federal penalties and corrective mechanisms for deceptive election practices, but the core legislation never became law.
Latest reviewed action recorded: Jun 12, 2009
Record Note
Draft import batch 2. Approved candidate focused on Black-community voting access and civil-rights enforcement. Source rows are referenced below, but only existing source URLs can be attached under the current schema.
Original Promise
Will sign the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act into law and charge the Voting Rights Section with vigorously enforcing that law and the provisions of the Voting Rights Act.
Action Timeline
Actions document what the federal government did. Outcomes below describe what changed, and each source list shows where the public record comes from.
Jan 6, 2009
House introduces the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act of 2009
Congress introduced legislation to criminalize deceptive election information, strengthen penalties for voter intimidation, and create corrective mechanisms through the Attorney General.
Jun 12, 2009
Bill is referred to House subcommittee and stalls
The legislation was referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties and did not advance to enactment.
Outcomes
Outcomes are the part of the record that can contribute to public scoring. They stay visible here with impact direction and linked sources so readers can verify what shaped the record.
Voting Outcome
The specific federal legislation to penalize deceptive election practices and require corrective federal action never became law.
Measured or documented impact: The bill was introduced and referred to committee, but it did not advance to enactment, leaving no new federal statutory framework matching the promise.
Black community impact: This matters for Black communities because voter intimidation and deceptive election practices have long been part of the architecture of Black voter suppression.
Evidence strength: Strong
Linked sources: 0
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