[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 134 (Friday, October 11, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1861-E1862]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


     CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 3295, HELP AMERICA VOTE ACT OF 2002

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. SILVESTRE REYES

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 10, 2001

  Mr. REYES. Mr. Speaker, today we consider legislation that was 
intended to fix the problems in our election system. As the Chair of 
the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, I have been particularly concerned 
about how such election reform would protect the voting rights of 
Hispanic American citizens. And I thank

[[Page E1862]]

Congressman Charlie Gonzalez, who chairs the Hispanic Caucus' Civil 
Rights Task Force, for his leadership and assistance on this issue. His 
dedication to advancing the interests of current and future Latino 
voters deserves great praise.
  Today, I join my colleague in urging this House to vote against the 
conference report of the Help America Vote Act. Last year, I voted 
against this bill because despite some of the progress it made, it 
failed to provide key safeguards that would ensure every voter would be 
able to cast a ballot and have that ballot counted.
  Now, almost one year later, we have a bill that has emerged from 
conference which includes some major improvements but also 
unfortunately includes some major new obstacles to Latino voters. Some 
of these obstacles came from the bill passed by the other body, and 
others were added in conference for the first time and at the last 
minute.
  Together, these obstacles create a bill that on balance will hurt 
Latino voters more than it will help. It is a sad irony that this is 
the end result of a process that began as an effort to address the 
voting difficulties of the 2000 general elections, where many minority 
voters were denied their right to vote because of faulty voter lists, 
intimidation, a lack of voter education, or other obstacles. Rather 
than take bold, unequivocal strides towards expanding civil rights 
protections and welcoming our nation's fastest growing bloc of minority 
voters, this bill is full of half-steps and backward steps that will 
dampen the voice of the Hispanic American electorate.
  The major obstacle to Latino voters in this bill is the inclusion of 
a new voter identification requirement. This will be the first time in 
contemporary election law history that an identification requirement is 
federally mandated. The bill requires a voter to show valid photo 
identification, a copy of a current utility bill, a bank statement, 
government check or other government document that shows the name and 
address of the voter.
  While it sounds reasonable to require identification at the polls in 
order to combat fraud--an effort I certainly support when done with 
genuine intent to make the voting process fair--the requirements in 
this conference report would particularly disenfranchise low income 
people, especially women and the elderly, who, for example, live in 
multi-person households and are less likely to drive, and therefore do 
not possess a driver's license, do not receive a utility bill in their 
name and may not have any of the other forms of identification listed 
in the bill.
  In the past, such provisions have been overturned in federal court 
for violating the Voting Rights Act. Furthermore, the U.S. Department 
of Justice has prohibited such identification requirements because of 
the disparate impact they have on minority voters.
  In addition to the identification requirement, which was in the other 
body's bill, new impediments to Latinos were added into the bill at the 
eleventh hour during conference. The most egregious of which is the 
creation of the ``citizenship check-off box'' mandate.
  The conference agreement now imposes on states a new mandate that 
they cannot register voters who inadvertently miss checking off the 
citizenship box on their voter registration forms. This mandate does 
not apply to those who fail to mark the age check-off box. This 
inconsistency makes no sense, as both citizenship and age are equal 
requirements to being eligible to vote. There is no acceptable reason 
why one criteria should be treated differently than the other.
  Under this provision, it is entirely plausible that a citizen who is 
otherwise eligible to vote, who mistakenly misses the check-off box on 
citizenship, will either not be notified of the error or not be 
notified with sufficient time to rectify the mistake before the state 
cut-off date for registration.
  Therefore, this change in the law could result in a state or local 
registrar targeting the voter registration forms of those with surnames 
that some people consider ``foreign,'' to find any that left the 
citizenship box blank and then invalidate them, without ever telling 
the applicant. When the voter shows up to vote, he or she will not be 
on the voter rolls and then if offered a provisional ballot, that 
ballot will never be counted, because only the provisional ballots of 
successfully registered voters are counted.
  Lastly, Mr. Speaker, this conference report adds barriers to voter 
registration efforts through adding needless administrative red tape. 
Under the conference report, someone who registers to vote, who has 
been issued a current and valid driver's license, must include the 
license number on the registration form. Therefore, if citizens happen 
not to have their license with them when they register to vote, their 
voter registration form will not be processed. This constitutes a 
weakening of existing voter rights law, and creates barriers to the 
effectiveness of voter registration drives, as citizens would have to 
register at a later time if they happen not to have their driver's 
license with them on their first attempt to register.
  For those who have not been issued a driver's license, the bill 
requires the last four digits of their social security number, which is 
then cross-checked against the Social Security Administration 
database--a database riddled with errors, especially in recording the 
names of Hispanic women.
  And for those people with weak memories, who could easily forget 
their Social Security number, incorrectly record that number, they will 
have their voter registration form invalidated.
  Besides these obstacles, the bill does include some improvements to 
our election system: more access to provisional ballots; the ability to 
verify a ballot before casting it; the required posting of voting 
information; and the creation of statewide voter list databases. 
However, a great deal of the bill's new benefits will be unavailable to 
many Latinos and others because of the new barriers the bill erects.
  On balance, this bill does not deserve our support. It is not better 
than no bill at all. I urge all my colleagues to vote against this 
conference report and revisit election reform in the next Congress, 
where we can hopefully do the job right.

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