[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 182 (Wednesday, November 30, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H7988-H7989]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   STANDING AGAINST VOTER OPPRESSION

  (Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I'm delighted to join my 
colleague, Congressman Clay. And before I do that, let me rise as well 
to express my support for the Gabe Zimmerman legislation that we will 
address today and pay tribute to his bravery and certainly his loss.
  We come to the floor today as partners with many in this Congress 
against voter intimidation and to speak on behalf of the Congressional 
Black Caucus, to collaborate with our many friends across the caucuses 
and across the interests in the Democratic Caucus, and certainly we 
hope to include our friends on the other side of the aisle.
  Since the 2010 election, over 40 States have implemented voter ID, 
voter suppression laws. Madam Speaker, we are not against knowing who 
is voting, but we are against turning back the clock of what the Voting 
Rights Act attempted to do some 40-plus years ago when before that time 
a poll tax was utilized, or asking those from the African American 
community how many jelly beans were in a jar.
  Just recently, I sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney's Office 
regarding voter intimidation and voter oppression. We rise today to say 
that we will stand against such oppression and ask the Justice 
Department to not clear voter ID laws.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about the need to protect 
democracy, to protect the voice of the American people, and to ensure 
the right to vote continues to be treated as a right under the 
Constitution rather than being treated as privilege.
  I am joined by my colleagues here today to call on all Americans of 
good faith to reject and denounce tactics that have absolutely no place 
in our democracy. We call on African-Americans, Hispanic and Latin 
Americans, and Asian-American voters to stand strong and learn their 
voting rights granted by law and the Constitution. We call on these 
citizens to stand against harassment and intimidation, to vote in the 
face of such adversity. The most effective way to curb tactics of 
intimidation and harassment is to vote. Is to stand together to fight 
against any measures that would have the effect of preventing every 
eligible citizen from being able to vote. Voting ensures active 
participation in democracy.
  Instances of voter intimidation are not long ago and far away. Just 
last year I sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to draw 
his attention to several disturbing instances of voter intimidation 
that had taken place in Houston. In a single week there were at least 
15 reports of abuse of voter rights throughout the city of Houston.
  As a Senior Member of the House Judiciary Committee, I called for an 
immediate investigation of these instances. Many of these incidents of 
voter intimidation were occurring in predominately minority 
neighborhoods and have been directed at African-Americans and Latinos. 
It is unconscionable to think that anyone would deliberately employ the 
use of such forceful and intimidating tactics to undermine the 
fundamental, Constitutional right to vote.

[[Page H7989]]

However, such conduct has regrettably occurred in Houston, and I urge 
you to take appropriate action to ensure that it does not recur.
  I am here today in the name of freedom, patriotism, and democracy. I 
am here to demand that the long hard-fought right to vote continues to 
be protected
  A long, bitter, and bloody struggle was fought for the Voting Rights 
Act of 1965 so that all Americans could enjoy the right to vote, 
regardless of race, ethnicity, or national origin. Americans died in 
that fight so that others could achieve what they had been forcefully 
deprived of for centuries--the ability to walk freely and without fear 
into the polling place and cast a voting ballot.
  Efforts to keep minorities from fully exercising that franchise, 
however, continue. Indeed, in the past thirty years, we have witnessed 
a pattern of efforts to intimidate and harass minority voters including 
efforts that were deemed ``Ballot Security'' programs that include the 
mailing of threatening notices to African-American voters, the carrying 
of video cameras to monitor polls, the systematic challenging of 
minority voters at the polls on unlawful grounds, and the hiring of 
guards and off-duty police officers to intimidate and frighten voters 
at the polls.
  My colleagues on the other side of the aisle have a particularly poor 
track record when it comes to documented acts of voter intimidation. In 
1982, a Federal Court in New Jersey provided a consent order that 
forbids the Republican National Committee from undertaking any ballot 
security activities in a polling place or election district where race 
or ethnic composition is a factor in the decision to conduct such 
activities and where a purpose or significant effect is to deter 
qualified voters from voting. These reprehensible practices continue to 
plague our Nation's minority voters.


                       VOTING RIGHTS ACT HISTORY

  August 6, 2011, marked the 46th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act
  Most Americans take the right to vote for granted. We assume that we 
can register and vote if we are over 18 and are citizens. Most of us 
learned in school that discrimination based on race, creed or national 
origin has been barred by the Constitution since the end of the Civil 
War.
  Before the 1965 Voting Rights Act, however, the right to vote did not 
exist in practice for most African Americans. And, until 1975, most 
American citizens who were not proficient in English faced significant 
obstacles to voting, because they could not understand the ballot.
  Even though the Indian Citizenship Act gave Native Americans the 
right to vote in 1924, state law determined who could actually vote, 
which effectively excluded many Native Americans from political 
participation for decades.
  Asian Americans and Asian immigrants also have suffered systematic 
exclusion from the political process and it has taken a series of 
reforms, including repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943, and 
passage of amendments strengthening the Voting Rights Act three decades 
later, to fully extend the franchise to Asian Americans. It was with 
this history in mind that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was designed to 
make the right to vote a reality for all Americans.
  And the Voting Rights Act has made giant strides toward that goal. 
Without exaggeration, it has been one of the most effective civil 
rights laws passed by Congress.
  In 1964, there were only approximately 300 African-Americans in 
public office, including just three in Congress. Few, if any, black 
elected officials were elected anywhere in the South. Today there are 
more than 9,100 black elected officials, including 43 members of 
Congress, the largest number ever. The act has opened the political 
process for many of the approximately 6,000 Latino public officials 
that have been elected and appointed nationwide, including 263 at the 
state or federal level, 27 of whom serve in Congress. And Native 
Americans, Asians and others who have historically encountered harsh 
barriers to full political participation also have benefited greatly.
  We must not forget the importance of protecting this hard earned 
right.


                                VOTER ID

  An election with integrity is one that is open to every eligible 
voter. Restrictive voter ID requirements degrade the integrity of our 
elections by systematically excluding large numbers of eligible 
Americans.
  I do not argue with the notion that we must prevent individuals from 
voting who are not allowed to vote. Yet a hidden argument in this bill 
is that immigrants may ``infiltrate'' our voting system. Legal 
immigrants who have successfully navigated the citizenship maze are 
unlikely to draw the attention of the authorities by attempting to 
register incorrectly. Similarly, undocumented immigrants are even less 
likely to risk deportation just to influence an election.
  If for no other reason than after a major disaster be it earthquakes, 
fires, floods or hurricanes, we must all understand how vulnerable our 
system is. Families fleeing the hurricanes and fires suffered loss of 
property that included lost documents. Compounding this was the 
devastation of the region, which virtually shut down civil services in 
the area. For example, New Orleans residents after Hurricane Katrina 
were scattered across 44 states. These uprooted citizens had difficulty 
registering and voting both with absentee ballots and at satellite 
voting stations. As a result, those elections took place fully 8 months 
after the disaster, and it required the efforts of non-profits, such as 
the NAACP, to ensure that voters had the access they are 
constitutionally guaranteed.
  We need to address the election fraud that we know occurring, such as 
voting machine integrity and poll volunteer training and competence. 
After every election that occurs in this country, we have solid 
documented evidence of voting inconsistencies and errors. In 2004, in 
New Mexico, malfunctioning machines mysteriously failed to properly 
register a presidential vote on more than 20,000 ballots. 1 million 
ballots nationwide were flawed by faulty voting equipment--roughly one 
for every 100 cast.
  Those who face the most significant barriers are not only the poor, 
minorities, and rural populations. 1.5 million college students, whose 
addresses change often, and the elderly, will also have difficulty 
providing documentation.
  In fact, newly married individuals face significant barriers to 
completing a change in surname. For instance, it can take 6-8 weeks to 
receive the marriage certificate in the mail, another two weeks (and a 
full day waiting in line) to get the new Social Security card, and 
finally three-four weeks to get the new driver's license. There is a 
significant possibility that this bill will also prohibit newlyweds 
from voting if they are married within three months of Election Day.
  The right to vote is a critical and sacred constitutionally protected 
civil right. To challenge this is to erode our democracy, challenge 
justice, and mock our moral standing. I urge my colleagues to join me 
in dismissing this crippling legislation, and pursue effective 
solutions to the real problems of election fraud and error. We cannot 
let the rhetoric of an election year destroy a fundamental right upon 
which we have established liberty and freedom.

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