[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.
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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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