Republican National Committee statement on the 50 anniversary of Voting Rights Act:

“The Voting Rights Act of 1965 enjoyed broad Republican support, but protecting citizens’ right to vote in free and fair elections is not merely a Republican priority. It is an American priority. Today, as we enjoy more access to the polls – through early, absentee and weekend voting – than in past decades, we celebrate the sacrifice, accomplishments, and memory of those who made it possible.”

Yet in North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin (where Priebus is from) and elsewhere, Republican legislators have voted to cut back early voting, and to impose additional voting restrictions, such as more onerous voter identification laws.

Nor is the GOP supporting efforts to amend the Voting Rights Act after the Supreme Court’s 2013 opinion in Shelby County v. Holder gutting a key part of it.

Here is the full statement: