[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 4 (Saturday, January 6, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H31]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         BETRAYAL OF DEMOCRACY

  (Ms. LEE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in total outrage over the 
disenfranchisement of thousands of voters and the real betrayal of our 
democracy.
  I rise today because we will not go gentle into that night. We will 
not stand silently by to seal the results of an electoral system that 
is separate and unequal.
  We will not stand silently by while African American voters are 
dismissed from polling places, forced to use antiquated machines, and 
denied their rightful voice.
  I went to Florida to work to get out the vote for the same reason 
that I have gone overseas as an election observer, because free and 
fair elections are the very lifeblood of our democracy, because the 
principle of one person, one vote, must be more than empty rhetoric.
  This is not a dispute about chads; this is about fairness.
  Martin Luther King, Jr. fought for the right to vote. Medgar Evers 
died for the right to vote. Today, we stand here in their memory. The 
right to vote is meaningless if every vote is not counted.
  So let the world know that we failed in upholding our democratic 
principles, and that it was the Reagan-Bush Supreme Court, not the 
people of the United States, who decided the outcome of this election.
  I object to the tallying and to accepting the electoral votes and 
will formally do so.

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