National Council of La Raza (NCLR), a leading Hispanic civil rights group, issued a statement responding to Fox News' baseless claim that the organization had encouraged voter fraud.

After NCLR retweeted a link to an October 27 article from the Washington Post which features an infographic of the different levels of identification required to vote in each state, the hosts of Fox & Friends responded by suggesting the organization was promoting voter fraud.

On October 30, NCLR responded to Fox's suggestion that the organization may be promoting fraudulent voting in a statement on its blog. Pointing to the “fact-free” Fox & Friends segment, the organization explained that its mission is nonpartisan and “works to promote the civic and political participation of the Hispanic community” by helping qualified voters to perform their civic duty. Countering Fox's claim, NCLR asserted that calling its sharing of the article “fraud” was “not only woefully incorrect” but also “irresponsible and deliberately deceptive”:

NCLR is a nonpartisan organization that works to promote the civic and political participation of the Hispanic community. Informing eligible Latino voters about whether their state has a voter ID requirement is a way to educate them about what they need to do to vote on Election Day--no different than sharing information about their polling locations. To suggest that sharing basic information about voting requirements is an attempt at fraud is not only woefully incorrect, it is irresponsible and deliberately deceptive.

Like the vast majority of Americans, we believe in fair elections, which is why we will continue to work hard to ensure that every eligible Latino voter makes it to the voting booth this November.

Fox's claim that NCLR had promoted voter fraud by attempting to explain voting requirements to Latinos ignored the already significant obstacles presented by voter ID laws to this demographic group. According to a 2012 report by the NALEO Educational Fund, although Latino voter turnout has “reach[ed] historic highs,” the demographic is still “likely to lag behind comparable participation rates of Americans of other races and ethnicities” due to lack of outreach, language accessibility, and “knowledge of voting procedures and requirements.” The organization explained that in particular, “restrictive changes enacted to voting policy” such as requiring government-issued photo identification cards, “will have a worse effect on the Latino electorate than on all voters in the aggregate.”