WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th May, 2021) A US court approved a request by New York State to become a plaintiff in a pending lawsuit against efforts to suppress the black vote with computer-generated phone calls falsely claiming that mailed ballots were part of government effort to collect personal information from voters, Attorney General Letitia James said on Thursday.
"The court's decision is a critical step in our fight against those who seek to suppress the votes and voices of Black communities. Through their use of misleading and targeted robocalls, [Jacob] Wohl and [Jack] Burkman illegally attempted to discourage Black voters from exercising their fundamental right to vote, in an effort to influence the election for their favored presidential candidate," a press release issued by James said.
A Federal district court approved a request for New York to join an existing lawsuit filed by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and the National Coalition on Black Civic Protection against Wohl, Burkman, Project 1599 and Burkman's lobbying firm J. M. Burkman & Associates, the release said.
The release described Wohl and Burknam as notorious conspiracy theorists who hid behind a sham organization to threaten and harass Black communities through disinformation, including claims that mail-in voters would have their personal information disseminated to police, the release added.
The robocall campaign reached about 5,500 New Yorkers in 2020 elections at a time when the state expanded mail voting to protect voters from COVID-19, according to the release.
