[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 114 (Tuesday, September 21, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H7318-H7323]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS AND THE PENDING ELECTION
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bishop of Utah). Under the Speaker's
announced policy of January 7, 2003, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms.
Jackson-Lee) is recognized for half the time to midnight, or 43
minutes.
MS. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I stand this evening to
continue the Congressional Black Caucus Special Orders and discussion
with our colleagues on the pending election that will be held this year
on November 2, 2004; to speak to my colleagues about
[[Page H7319]]
the absolute imperative need to educate America and to be able to be
diligent on what we fear to be episodes of attempts to suppress voting
all over the Nation.
As I listened to my colleagues who preceded me on the floor of the
House, I believe it is important to share some thoughts about the
dilemma we find ourselves in. It may even be the engine behind the
selection on November 2, 2004.
All of us have recognized the bravery and the valiant efforts,
sacrifices that have been made by our friends and neighbors who find
themselves in Afghanistan and Iraq. In my community alone, it is not
only the enlisted personnel but it is likewise the Texas National
Guard, the Reservists and many, many civilians.
We came to where we are today on different pathways. Some of us voted
to authorize the authority to go to war, and many of us, such as
myself, were adamant that this was the wrong direction to take. In the
course of this debate, none of us, however, have taken to the task of
criticizing or not recognizing the valor of our troops. And tonight I
continue that position, to respect them and thank them, and to
apologize to those families and to offer them sympathy, for those
families whose brave men and women have already lost their lives.
One thing about this Nation is that we are eager to rise to the
occasion to defend this Nation's honor. We were eager to defend America
after the horrific tragedy of 9/11. And as I began, I started out by
speaking to the question of voter suppression and the rights of voters,
and I wanted to mention the tragedies in Iraq, as I have mentioned the
tragedy on 9/11, because I think it all comes to the point of the
American people finally making the decision of the direction they want
this Nation to go.
In the last 48 hours or a week ago some 80-plus people were killed in
Baghdad. There is no doubt that in the last weekend it was one of the
bloodiest weekends that we have experienced. We know that three
hostages were held. We know that Americans were held. We know that
families in America today are mourning the loss of their loved ones who
were beheaded in the last 48 hours.
We also knows that this administration, the Secretary of Defense, and
those responsible for the policy of this war, or the lack of policy,
have not offered one solution, one suggestion of how we can return from
Iraq with honor. There is suggestion, of course, that there will be an
election in Iraq in January and one pending in Afghanistan. We took
away the resources from Afghanistan and the support for President
Karzai to be distracted by a war directed and called for by this
administration which today we find out was on a truly false basis. That
is why this election is one of extreme importance. As many have said,
it may be the most historic election, the most important election of
our lifetime.
So I think it begs the question that we can come on the floor and pay
tribute to those brave young men and women, but we have to tell the
truth. There is a complete disaster in Iraq. There is complete pillage
and murder and brutality and violence and explosions and loss of life
and continued loss of life of those who we have sent to be on the front
lines and who have been willing to take the oath to stand up and defend
America.
Whose obligation is it? It is those of us who were elected. The
President of the United States has to stand before the American people
with a solution that will allow our men and women to return with honor.
They have to in fact recognize that there must be action. In the
President's remarks to the United Nations I did not hear a response to
Senator Kerry's very provocative and important and instructive and
meaningful statement on yesterday morning about solutions, calling
together all of the allies that were in New York to help assist them or
help to have assistance in working with Iraq, provide better training
for Iraqi security forces, provide benefits to the Iraqi people, allow
more Iraqi people to in fact engage in the rebuilding of Iraq, and as
well ensure that democratic elections can be held next year. Actions, a
statement of actions.
I bring this to the attention of my colleagues because the
Congressional Black Caucus has been consistent in asking for some
orderly response to a war that was called on the basis of weapons of
mass destruction, called on the basis of imminent threat to the United
States, called on the basis of a connection to al Qaeda, none of which
are true. We simply asked for the truth. And so we continue with that
message and we build on it because as we move towards the elections, we
are likewise concerned with the people of the United States, and it is
our commitment to ensure because this election is so important and it
will be the telling story of how we move forward in Iraq, Afghanistan,
North Korea, Indonesia, and the war on terror. We cannot afford for one
single vote to be lost.
As I mentioned, the speech that was given by Senator Kerry, I perused
some of the newspapers today because when we speak about voter
suppression, many times it is thought that we speak about one group
versus another. Yes, the Voter Rights Act of 1965 covered Southern
States and protects the rights of African Americans and Hispanics in
protecting them from being denied the right to vote. I might say that
even with those laws, we had a tumultuous time in 2004. But I thought I
would just show to my colleagues why I am standing here today, standing
against voter suppression for any American.
As I read the Wall Street Journal, I am looking at both Alina and
Paul Shipman, and the article talks about the anatomy of a hospital
bill. There are people spending $29,000 because they do not have any
insurance. That is what is going on in America, and that is why this
election is so very important.
Or maybe we want to read the Los Angeles Times and look at a picture
that shows somewhat of traffic congestion that is all over America
because we need more transportation dollars and resources to improve
our mobility. We need dollars to fix our bridges, to support our rail
and our bus and our airplanes and our airports and our neighborhoods
where there is extreme noise from our airports. We need dollars
invested in America.
Then I show this last picture of Marita Michael, who testified in
Washington, D.C. against the effort by this Congress to repeal the
assault weapons ban in D.C. after she lost her young beloved son of 15
years old by gunshot.
This is why this election is so very important, and this is why we
cannot afford to be denied the right to vote. And as I remind those,
let me say that this is not a frivolous discussion, because even today
we are finding out that we are going to have a tough time in this
election, even in the backdrop of the legislation passed in 2002, the
Help America Vote Act of 2002, which I will discuss later as I see my
colleague has joined me, even as we have that legislation or the
legislation of Senator Dodd in 2001 that would have created the Equal
Protection of Voting Rights Act of 2001, primarily because we are still
facing the challenges of an election that can be tampered with.
Let me cite two or three points as I yield to the distinguished
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Watson), but I think it is important
to set the groundwork. The reason why we are on the floor of the House
is because there are families paying $30,000 for hospitalization
because they have no health insurance.
There are people trying to get to work and trying to develop jobs,
and they are immobilized by traffic conditions that do not allow the
free ingress and egress because we are stalemated in this Congress
because so many dollars are going overseas to fight the war in Iraq.
And there is no solution it appears, no pronouncement from this
administration, no relief to these families who are longing, no relief
to these individuals who are serving us, no understanding whether they
will be able to come home or not.
Mr. Speaker, I was in the airport over the weekend, and I saw a
number of our men and women who had come home for some time frame; and
I stopped to thank them for their service and asked them how long they
would be home. Some I hoped were coming home for good, but do you know
what they said to me, Mr. Speaker? We have got 15 days and then we go
back.
{time} 2245
These are men and women who cannot be told when we are going to have
[[Page H7320]]
a resolution in Iraq, when we are going to transfer, if you will, the
security aspects of Iraq to the people who should be securing their own
country.
No one is suggesting that we cut and run, but we are suggesting that
there be a statement, a pronouncement that there is a solution and that
this administration knows the direction in which it goes.
So, again, this is an important election and just to remind you why
it is important, why the Voting Rights Act is important and this
election law is important, because even in the last election in
Florida, there was the use of armed, plainclothes officers from the
Florida Department of Law Enforcement to question elderly black voters
in their homes and senior citizens' homes, the easiest persons to
intimidate. The incidents were part of a State investigation of voting
irregularities in the city's March 2003 mayoral election. Let me share
with you one other aspect.
This year in Florida the State ordered the implementation of the
potential felon purge list to remove voters from the rolls. That in
itself was chilling, in a disturbing echo of the infamous 2000 purge
which was found to be patently incorrect and egregiously wrong,
suggesting that people who came to the polls in 2000 were felons when
they were not.
In 2000, thousands of eligible voters, particularly African
Americans, were removed from the rolls. After an outcry of the people
in Florida and those around the country, the State abandoned the plan,
after the news media investigations revealed that the 2004 list also
included thousands of people who were eligible to vote and heavily
targeted African Americans, while virtually ignoring many other voters.
Then lastly, Mr. Speaker, this is in a southern State protected by
the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and 1968. In 2002 in Louisiana, flyers
were distributed in African American communities telling voters they
could go to the polls on Tuesday, December 10. Mr. Speaker, they also
added that if they could not go, they could go this Tuesday, December
10, excuse me, 3 days after a Senate run-off election was held. Let me
go over that again. They sent flyers out to tell the African American
voters that they could vote Tuesday, December 10, which was actually 3
days past the election date that they should have showed up at. This is
the kind of underhanded, almost insulting, but really threatening to
the Constitution, actions that have gone on before by those who would
want to turn away voters who disagree with them.
So that is why we stand here today, and I am delighted to yield to
the distinguished gentlewoman from California (Ms. Watson) who has been
a strong voice on the issues of voter suppression and a member of the
Congressional Black Caucus.
Ms. WATSON. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague, the
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) for yielding to me and for the
Caucus for organizing this important discussion on voter intimidation
and suppression in the United States.
In a Nation where children are taught at the earliest age that every
citizen has the right to vote, it would be comforting to know that the
last vestiges of voter intimidation, oppression and suppression have
been swept away by the passage and the enforcement of the Voting Rights
Act of 1965. The facts, however, are discomforting.
In every national election since reconstruction, in every election
since the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, voters, and
particularly African Americans and other minorities, have faced
calculated and determined efforts at intimidation and suppression, both
above and below the Mason Dixon line, from California to Maine to Texas
to Montana.
Overt, and often violent, voter participation in the era of Jim Crow
now has been replaced by more subtle, but often just as intimidating,
tactics. Gone are the days of poll taxes and literacy tests. Today,
intimidation, threats, innuendo and deception are often more used to
discourage voter turnout.
The list of strategies used by those who wish to suppress or
intimidate voters is indeed varied and includes the following:
challenges and threats against individual voters at the polls by armed
private guards, off duty law enforcement officers, local creditors,
fake poll monitors and poll workers and managers; signs posted at
polling places warning of penalties for voter fraud and non-citizen
voting or illegally urging support for a candidate; poll workers
assisting voters in filling out their ballots and instructing them on
how to vote; criminal tampering with voter registration rolls and
records; flyer and radio advertisements containing false information;
roadblocks placed near polling places; and internal memos from party
officials in which the goals of suppressing voter turnout are outlined.
Mr. Speaker, the overwhelming evidence of widespread voter
intimidation and suppression in our Nation and the fact that the
presidential election of 2004 promises to be as close as the 2000
election, when every vote did count but was not counted, prompted me to
draft a resolution condemning all efforts to suppress and intimidate
voters in the United States and affirming that the right to vote is a
fundamental right of all eligible United States citizens.
The resolution also urges States to replace decades-old election
machinery with less error-prone equipment before the November 2004
national elections. It calls upon all States to institute a moratorium
on the erection of roadblocks or identity checkpoints designed to
racially profile or intimidate voters on election day.
Mr. Speaker, I saw this happening when I was the ambassador to
Micronesia, thousands of miles away and watching on CNN. I was
horrified that my country would see on election day these kinds of
racially-profiled activities that were intended to stop the person of
color from voting. I was horrified and ashamed.
My resolution calls upon the Attorney General to vigorously monitor
and investigate all credible allegations of voter intimidation and
suppression and to expeditiously prosecute all offenders to the full
extent of the law.
Mr. Speaker, all of us here today are very aware of the voter
irregularities that took place in Florida during the 2000 election. We
are very aware that every vote does count and that in 2000 perhaps as
little as 600 votes separated the two presidential candidates.
We are also aware that many of the votes in Florida were disqualified
due to antiquated voting machines used predominantly in minority
neighborhoods. While just 11 percent of Florida's voters are African
American, more than half of the spoiled ballots, that is, more than
90,000 of the votes tossed out, were cast by African Americans.
We are also aware of other unsettling events, one of which was
conducted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in Orlando this
summer. In that investigation, elderly African American voters were
visited at their homes by law enforcement officers, curious about their
voting behavior. Florida officials deny any attempt to intimidate
voters. However, the Justice Department recently disclosed that it had
initiated a civil rights investigation into what had occurred in
Orlando.
The recent event in Florida follows on the heels of two other well-
publicized events in Florida when in 2001 State officials attempted to
purge its list of alleged felons, predominantly African Americans, and
in 2004, when the State again attempted to purge its voter list.
Mr. Speaker, I, along with my colleagues from the Congressional Black
Caucus, come to the floor of this House this evening to declare that
never again will such acts of voter intimidation and suppression be
used. It is high time for both parties to sign a mutual pledge to
renounce any and all efforts to suppress the vote in this upcoming
election.
The world will be watching our Nation on the eve of November 2. As we
go into other Nations and the United Nations talking about liberty and
democracy, we cannot be hypocritical. Not only will the Western world
be watching, but the non-Western, and particularly the Arab, world will
be following the election. If we intend to bring liberty to Iraq and
any other country, we must model that behavior here at home.
So I want to show the world how democracy should be practiced, not
how it should not, and as a person whose roots are on the continent of
Africa, no
[[Page H7321]]
longer will we be suppressed or intimidated because our skins are
black.
I am an American. I have been an American ambassador. I have a right
to vote, and no one should stop me or mine from exercising that right.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished
gentlewoman, and I am very honored, as any Member of the Congressional
Black Caucus and Member of this body, to join the gentlewoman on this
very important legislation to eliminate voter suppression.
The gentlewoman's chronicling the indictments of our various election
systems is very important to educate our colleagues because many times
it is thought that with the passage of legislation, and as you well
know, we worked very hard to craft the Help America Vote Act of 2002.
Mr. Speaker, since this legislation, we are chronicling this list of
indictments against the various election systems throughout the
country. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 will be 40-years-old in about 6-
to 8-months, and look at us. We are standing here talking about voter
suppression. This is shameful.
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague and I want to make sure
that we are mentioning my colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus
and our chairperson, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings)
because, Mr. Speaker, we are committed to coming to this floor as often
as it is needed to be able to educate our colleagues and to encourage
you to join with us in supporting this resolution.
This resolution should be bipartisan and unanimous. Not one of us
should be interested in suppressing the votes of someone like Ms.
Michael who wanted to express herself in Washington, D.C., about the
assault weapons ban.
{time} 2300
She needs to be able to vote. No one should want to suppress the
votes of thousands upon thousands of Americans who are stuck in traffic
because we have not been able to focus on the investment in
transportation in America. And certainly none of us should want to be
able to stifle the votes of the 44 million uninsured, who like this
family, the Shipman family, are paying enormous hospital bills, maybe
even more than this, $30,000.
The votes are important, but it makes me very sad when I can cite
instances that occur today that go back to 1880 and 1910. For example,
Florida adopted literacy tests, property qualifications, grandfather
clauses which permitted an individual to vote only if his grandfather
had thereby excluded the descendants of slaves.
Mr. Speaker, I want to engage with the gentlewoman from California as
I put this forward. We are thinking that we have moved beyond this. In
fact, let me say that one of the good news stories coming out of this
is that we are going to be prepared. People for the American way, the
Voters Institute, the NAACP, the National Urban League, and many other
groups are coming together to say loudly to America that we will not
tolerate the denial of a vote and a vote not being counted.
Mr. Speaker, we expect to have some 10,000 or more lawyers, and we
are recruiting them now. And if it is within the ethical posture, I
hope those who are listening to my voice and who desire to be part of
democracy and the privilege of voting and the rights of people voting
would be in contact with these organizations and the Congressional
Black Caucus regarding their desires, as legal scholars, to participate
in protecting the rights of Americans so that votes will not be denied.
We have the right for provisional voting, Mr. Speaker. Let me tell
you what is happening. We are intimidating people from using
provisional voting. Just this weekend we came from Ohio, my good
friend, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Jones), a great leader in that
State, invited some of us in to survey the procedures and to look at
the opportunities and the structures for voting in Ohio. Lo and behold,
we had one of their State officials suggesting restrictions on
provisional voting. We will join with the gentlewoman from Ohio in
working to ensure that that does not happen. That is not what
provisional voting says. It says that if you come to a voting booth and
you believe you have the right to vote, you can sign an affidavit, you
can provisionally vote, and your vote should be counted. This is
intimidation, Mr. Speaker, nothing more, nothing less.
Then we find out, as we visited our men and women in Iraq and
Afghanistan, and I hear my colleagues saluting them, and I join them in
doing so, but we know the trouble we had with our military voting in
2000. Well, I am surprised and concerned that we do not have a clear
understanding how overseas ballots from our military personnel will get
to their respective hometowns to be counted.
Now, I understand, and we are looking into this, that these ballots
are to be received by the Pentagon. What an intimidating aspect to a
specialist P4, a person who is simply an enlisted person, doing their
best, having to know that some officer may have the opportunity to look
at their vote. Where is the right of privacy?
So to all those family members who have loved ones in the military,
you need to be tuned in and ask the questions of your elected persons:
How will my loved one, my son, my husband, my daughter, my wife, my
family member's vote be counted and will it be secure?
Additionally, Florida's current lifetime ban on voting by convicted
felons, which disenfranchised nearly a third of all black males during
the 2000 elections, dates back to the reactionary measures implemented
in the late 19th century. We still have laws today that deny those who
have done their time, paid their dues, who are denied the right to
vote. We need a national legislative initiative, as we have ongoing in
this Congress, to restore the rights of individuals who have paid their
dues for the crime they have committed, and who are committed to being
contributing citizens of this Nation. How dare we deny them their right
to vote, and I hope we are able to pass this legislation as soon as
possible.
What about local election officials who use the secret ballot law to
take advantage of high illiteracy among blacks? Under the guise of
protecting the integrity of the ballot, the State of Florida barred
anyone from providing assistance to a voter, even if they could not
read. Frankly, I think that we are clearly a Nation that has a long way
to go.
I would like to thank the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Eddie Bernice
Johnson), who I joined, along with a number of others, I know the
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Watson) did as well, with her
international experience. We will have international observers, Mr.
Speaker, and that is no shame to the United States. If we are a
democracy that we are proud of, then we need international observers to
affirm the fact that we have lived up to our own obligations, duties
and values. We should not be denying those individuals who are
uninsured, people stuck in traffic, who cannot get from a job that
probably does not pay that much because we have no public
transportation, a mother who is crying over her deceased son concerned
about the assault weapons ban. They need to vote November 2nd, 2004, in
the various early vote methods that areas may have.
We have a catastrophe here, and I encourage those who are concerned
about this Constitution to consider voting one of your most precious
rights. We expect that this century and this election, to be the first
presidential election fully into the 21st century after the turn of
this century, this election should set the standard that we are
prepared for anyone who seeks public office. It should not matter
whether we agree with their position, whether they are black or white
or Hispanic, whether they are south Asian or Native American, whatever
their diversity, we should not undermine voters because of who they are
and because of who they desire to vote for.
Mr. Speaker, the election in 2000 was won actually in the popular
vote by another person. This election cannot have that dichotomy. This
is a solemn challenge for this House and for the other body. This is a
solemn challenge for those of us who take an oath of office and rise
every morning to pledge allegiance to our flag. This is an enormous
burden that we now have.
Frankly, Mr. Speaker, I am frightened, because of what the
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Watson) said, a former ambassador,
when she was not a Member of Congress in that 2000 election and the
experience that she had. I
[[Page H7322]]
spent 30 days in Florida after that election. I spoke to Floridians,
senior citizens who were frustrated by the fact that they did not get a
chance to vote as they desired. There were county officials distorting
the ballot that then distorted the results of the election. I had
disabled persons coming to me after that election crying out that we
should never have it happen again where a disabled person cannot vote
in dignity with the privacy that is necessary.
So it is important that we come on the floor almost every night,
because I do not believe this law, the Help America Vote Act, has
really been implemented. Ask how many jurisdictions have the technology
necessary to allow disabled persons to vote privately, Mr. Speaker. I
want every disabled person to be aware that they can go to their county
seat right now, whoever is in charge of elections, and demand they be
able to vote privately and have the kind of procedures in place to do
so. It is their constitutional right.
So, Mr. Speaker, I believe that the work we have to do is yet undone;
disabled persons, senior citizens and, yes, students. Students like the
ones at Texas Prairie View A&M, who the district attorney told because
they were students, they could not vote in the jurisdiction where they
went to school. We are finding this happening all over America. The
Constitution and the United States Supreme Court confirms that they can
vote. The 1979 case that governed Prairie View A&M is applicable to
students all over the country. Students can vote in the place of their
school residency as long as they vote no place else. Let our voices be
heard to all election officials who would even attempt to deny college
students eligible to vote such as they did at Florida A&M, denying them
the right to vote.
We believe elections should be guided by four fundamental principles:
The voting process, particularly the voting systems in the
administration of elections must be uniform and nondiscriminatory.
Voters must be able to independently and privately cast and verify
their ballot. That is number two. That is the one we mentioned with
respect to the disabled and senior citizens. No one who has a challenge
of any kind should be intimidated and insulted and disgraced at the
voting booth.
{time} 2310
Number three, any voting system must comply with national
certification standards.
And four, voter confidence and reliability in the electoral process
must be maintained.
I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Watson) for a
question. She has crafted this resolution dealing with voter
suppression. She comes from California. Many times we believe that
these issues are only relegated to the southern States. I would like
the gentlewoman to share some of the language out of the resolution and
the final resolve that says we are against voter suppression and
intimidation because I hope, as we conclude our remarks tonight on the
floor of the House, that we will be moving this legislation as quickly
as possible because we cannot have in the 21st century the long shadow
of Jim Crow. We cannot have the taking away of votes and the
undercounting of votes.
Ms. WATSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms.
Jackson-Lee), and I appreciate the gentlewoman's passionate expression
of the right to vote. That undergirds the reason why I introduced a
resolution.
I read in the paper last week that there was a gentleman in one of
the States up north who said we must suppress the black vote because,
as you know, blacks vote Democrat, and so we must find ways to suppress
their getting to the polls. I was appalled and shocked that we are
dealing with something that was outlawed, we thought, by the Voting
Rights Act of 1965. But we always have to be awakened to the facts and
realities in which we live, that racism is not dead in this country; it
just takes a different position, a different posture.
So despite the gains that we have made in securing our right to vote,
new roadblocks have been successfully erected, including diluting the
African-American vote by switching to an at-large election, preventing
African-Americans from becoming candidates or obtaining office, voter
fraud, the discriminatory selection of election officials, denying
African-Americans access to precinct meetings and the harassment and
outright exclusion of African-Americans from polling places.
And we know that, prior to the last election, there were notices sent
out that said if the weather is bad, you do not have to vote on
November, let us just use the 2nd, but you can vote on December 10.
These are things that are occurring in today's atmosphere.
Mr. Speaker, I have put together a series of whereases in this
resolution. What they do is document progress that has been made. I
would like to read just one of them: Whereas voters in the United
States, particularly African-Americans and other minorities, have faced
calculated and determined efforts at voter intimidation and suppression
in every national election since the reconstruction era.
An example of that was a few weeks ago in Florida where names were
purged, but only names of African-Americans, and the person who was in
charge, the secretary of state, said that the information gotten from
the database on the census did not indicate whether Hispanics should be
purged because they were considered to be white. If you have a Gonzalez
and a Solis and a Menendez, that might make one question whether you
have some Hispanics on this list. It is these kinds of calculated
efforts that we want to do away with, and when I get back to my
district, I am going to contact my county bar association and ask if
they will join in our efforts to be sure we have attorneys throughout
this country who will be ready in a flash to go to court when we see
these violations of the Voting Rights Act.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I am delighted for the
gentlewoman to make that point. Let me quickly close by first of all
thanking the gentlewoman and making mention of our chairperson, the
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings), and say that all of us are
going to engage our county bar associations, the bars of the respective
communities who believe in the justice of voting, to work with us.
Mr. Speaker, let me say, the reason why, even with Native Americans
in the South Dakota 2004 primary, they were prevented from voting and
were challenged because they did not have photo IDs which were not
required in that State. The State of Arizona is now looking to do that.
We see there is reason for us to raise up the Constitution on the
idea of voting, the Voting Rights Act and the very privilege of voting.
We are in trouble, and the fact we are in trouble, there is a crisis
and a need for us to surround the Nation with the idea that we will not
tolerate one single act of voter suppression.
I ask my colleagues to support enthusiastically the Watson resolution
against voter suppression. I ask those who are listening to engage
their county government. And finally, I ask that we look at all of the
electronic voting machines because we will engage in lawsuits if
necessary to have a paper trail to protect the votes that will be going
into those electronic voting machines.
Today we spoke on voter suppression. We will continue to do so
because it is the right of the American people. This election must be
free, and we must stand for freedom, justice and equality.
Despite significant gains our Nation has made to secure the voting
rights of all Americans, credible reports of voter intimidation and
suppression demonstrate that this most fundamental democratic right
remains a dream deferred for some Americans.
I have joined my colleague from California, Ms. Watson in introducing
a resolution condemning all efforts to suppress and intimidate voters
in the United States.
This resolution reaffirms that voting is a fundamental right of all
eligible United States citizens; urges States to replace decades-old
election machinery with less error-prone equipment before the November
2004 national elections; calls upon States to institute a moratorium on
the erection of roadblocks or identity checkpoints designed to racially
profile or intimidate voters on election day; and calls upon the
Attorney General to vigorously monitor and investigate all credible
allegations of voter intimidation and suppression and to expeditiously
prosecute all offenders to the fullest extent of the law.
As we all learned during the last national election, each individual
vote counts. By most accounts, the upcoming presidential election
[[Page H7323]]
will again underscore the importance that votes are counted accurately
and that every qualified voter is allowed to exercise his or her
constitutional right.
People for the American Way--Protecting the Integrity and Accessibility
of Voting in 2004 and Beyond
A Statement of Principles on Voting Systems and Voter Verification
As the 2004 election approaches, there is significant
concern among Americans that our voting system has not been
sufficiently protected from a repeat of widespread
disenfranchisement. New technologies require election
officials to grapple with a complex set of interests,
including accessibility for people with disabilities and
sufficient security and accountability to prevent elections
from being affected by equipment malfunction or tampering.
The enormous logistical difficulties facing state and local
election officials in implementing the Help America Vote Act
are compounded by limited resources and a lack of guidance
from the federal government.
Preventing disaster on Election Day will require a public
commitment from election officials at all levels of
government--especially chief state election officials--as
well as the resources to put in place equipment and
procedures that will advance and protect the voting rights of
all Americans.
Maintaining the integrity of our electoral process is
critical to America's democratic institutions. Providing
people with disabilities with the opportunity to vote in an
independent and private matter is essential to comply with
the moral and legal imperative of equality.
We are confident that there is a clear way forward that
will allow states to achieve both goals to the maximum extent
feasible for this year's elections, while encouraging
additional advances in technology to fully serve the needs of
all voters and election officials in future elections.
We believe action by election officials should be guided by
four fundamental principles:
1. The voting process, particularly the voting systems and
the administration of elections, must be uniform and
nondiscriminatory;
2. Voters must be able to independently and privately cast
and verify their ballot;
3. Any voting system must comply with national
certification standards; and
4. Voter confidence and reliability in the electoral
process must be maintained.
Less than ten weeks before the national elections, potential problems
with voter registration lists, new and unproven technologies,
insufficient resources for poll worker training, and inadequate voter
education are increasingly being scrutinized for their potential to rob
voters of their right to cast a vote that is counted. These, however,
are not the only threats to the integrity of the elections, as a report
released by People For the American Way Foundation and the NAACP makes
clear.
The Long Shadow of Jim Crow: Voter Intimidation and Suppression in
America documents that the vestiges of voter intimidation, oppression
and suppression were not swept away by the Voting Rights Act or by
subsequent efforts to enforce it. In fact, deliberate efforts to
deceive or intimidate voters into staying away from the polls continue
to emerge in nearly every major election cycle.
NAACP Board Chairman Julian Bond has been quoted as saying that
``Minority voters bear the brunt of every form of disenfranchisement,
including pernicious efforts to keep them away from the polls.''
``This report is a reminder that while we are keeping an eye on state
officials and new voting machines, we cannot relax our vigilance
against these kinds of direct assaults on voters' rights.''
Poll taxes, literacy texts and physical violence of the Jim Crow era
have been replaced by more subtle and creative tactics.
This summer, Michigan state Rep. John Pappageorge (R-Troy) was quoted
in the Detroit Free press as saying, ``If we do not suppress the
Detroit vote, we're going to have a tough time in this election.''
African Americans comprise 83% of Detroit's population.
In Kentucky in July 2004, Black Republican officials joined to ask
their State GOP party chairman to renounce plans to place ``vote
challengers'' in African-American precincts during the coming
elections.
Most recently, controversy has erupted over the use in the Orlando
area of armed, plainclothes officers from the Florida Department of Law
Enforcement (FDLE) to question elderly black voters in their homes as
part of a state investigation of voting irregularities in the city's
March 2003 mayoral election. Critics have charged that the tactics used
by the FDLE have intimidated black voters, which could suppress their
turnout in this year's elections. Six members of Congress recently
called on Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate potential civil
rights violations in the matter.
This year in Florida, the state ordered the implementation of a
``potential felon'' purge list to remove voters from the rolls, in a
disturbing echo of the infamous 2000 purge, which removed thousands of
eligible voters, primarily African-Americans, from the rolls. The state
abandoned the plan after news media investigations revealed that the
2004 list also included thousands of people who were eligible to vote,
and heavily targeted African-Americans while virtually ignoring
Hispanic voters.
In South Dakota's June 2004 primary, Native American voters were
prevented from voting after they were challenged to provide photo IDs,
which they were not required to present under state or federal law.
Earlier this year in Texas, a local district attorney claimed that
students at a majority black college were not eligible to vote in the
county where the school is located. It happened in Waller County--the
same county where 26 years earlier, a federal court order was required
to prevent discrimination against the students.
Last year, voters in African American areas of Philadelphia were
systematically challenged by men carrying clipboards and driving sedans
with magnetic signs designed to look like law enforcement insignia.
The Long Shadow of Jim Crow also reviews the historical roots of
recent voter intimidation and suppression efforts in the days following
emancipation, through Reconstruction and the ``Second Reconstruction,''
the years immediately following the passage of the Voting Rights Act.
The 1965 Voting Rights Act was among the crowning achievements of the
civil rights era, and a defining moment for social justice and
equality. Yet as The Long Shadow of Jim Crow documents, attempts to
erode and undermine those victories have never disappeared. Voter
intimidation is not a relic of the past, but a strategy used with
disturbing frequency in recent years. Sustaining the promise of the
civil rights era, and maintaining the dream of equal voting rights for
every citizen requires constant vigilance, courageous leadership, and
an active, committed and well-informed citizenry.
This year, with widespread predictions of a historically close
national election and an unprecedented wave of new voter registration,
unscrupulous political operatives may seek any advantage, including
suppression and intimidation efforts. As in the past, minority voters
and low-income populations will be the most likely targets of dirty
tricks at the polls.
``Forewarned is forearmed,'' said Bond. ``We are reminding voters,
election officials, and the media about the kinds of dirty tricks that
can be expected. We must be prepared to confront and defeat them.''
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues on this side of the aisle to take
heed to the warning of Mr. Bond, for four more years is a very long
time and could mean the difference between a safe America and continued
war and costly occupation; money for our children's education and
failure to utilize affirmative action to bring about equality in
education; respect for the U.S. Constitution and continually closing
doors to federal courthouses. Four years could mean a very long time if
we do not work for change in the administration of our government.
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