At the National Press Club on Monday, the potential successor to Attorney General Eric Holder, Labor Secretary Tom Perez, discussed the alleged problem of in-person voter fraud ahead of the midterm elections.

On March 7, 1965, known as Bloody Sunday, voting rights advocates were beaten and gassed as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, traveling from Montgomery, Alabama, to Selma, Alabama, NBC News reports.

"As we prepare to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, I do not believe the enduring voting issue ... is in-person voter fraud," Perez said Monday. "I don't believe that because I did these cases when I was over there, and that is a phantom problem."

Bloody Sunday led to the 1965 Voting Rights Acts, but some of the anti-discriminatory acts the bill carried have been "recently nullified by the U.S. Supreme Court," as reported by NBC.

While Perez served as the Department of Justice's civil rights division's assistant attorney general, the department denied some state legislatures, most of them by Republicans after Barack Obama was elected president, that implemented stricter voter ID requirements. Those behind the bills said they were needed to prevent people from using another person's ID to vote, but studies have found few cases of this actually happening. The idea that strict voter ID laws hurt voter turnout lacks evidence as well.

Although Perez does not think in-person voter fraud is an issue, he did not say what the DOJ should focus on instead.

"I have not studied that issue since I was at the Department of Labor and I can tell you the Department of Labor's priorities should be putting people back to work, continuing the pace of growth and making sure we have shared prosperity," he said.

Perez has been named as the next potential U.S. attorney general. He refused to talk about it on Monday, but he already has support from various Latino advocacy groups, including members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, who wish to endorse Perez, The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda and other liberal groups, Politico reports.

"You will see him with a strong core of supporters among members of Congress," Rep. Joaquín Castro, D-Texas, said in an interview. "He is knowledgeable, he is fair and he has had experience on the pressing issues of the Justice Department."

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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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