[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 121 (Tuesday, July 18, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1008-E1009]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           VOTER SUPPRESSION

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 17, 2017

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues Congresswoman 
Plaskett and Congressman Veasey for hosting this special order 
resisting voter suppression on both the state and federal level since 
the Supreme Court struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act in the 
disastrous Shelby County v. Holder ruling of 2013.
  The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a watershed moment for the Civil 
Rights Movement--it liberated communities of color from legal 
restrictions barring them from their essential right to civic 
engagement and political representation.
  And yet, more than half a century later, we are still discussing 
voter suppression--something which should be a bygone relic of the 
past, yet continues to undercut racial minorities, immigrants, women, 
and young people.
  Uncaged by the Shelby County ruling, 14 states took extreme measures 
to enforce new voting restrictions before the 2016 presidential 
election.
  Many of these states have experienced increasing numbers of black and 
Hispanic voters in recent elections.
  If not for devious, state-sponsored voter suppression policies like 
discriminatory voter ID laws, reduced early voting periods, and voter 
intimidation tactics that directly or indirectly target racial 
minorities, the election might have had a drastically different 
outcome.
  To my dismay, many of the civil rights that I once fought for as a 
student and young lawyer have stagnated or been rolled back by 
conservative state and federal officials over the years.
  To add final insult to injury, the Trump Administration has issued an 
Executive Order establishing an Election Integrity Commission to

[[Page E1009]]

investigate not voter suppression, but so-called ``voter fraud'' in the 
2016 election.
  Trump and his followers have been remarkably effective in pumping up 
the myth of voter fraud, but it is just that: a myth.
  Between 2000 and 2014, there were 35 credible allegations of voter 
fraud out of more than 834 million ballots cast--that is less than 1 
one-hundred thousandth of a percent.
  An extensive study by social scientists at Dartmouth College 
uncovered no evidence consistent with Trump's wild allegations of 
widespread voter fraud rigging the 2016 election.
  Just for the record, the popular vote of the presidential election 
was:
  Hillary Clinton, 65,853,516;
  Donald Trump, 62,884,824.
  Trump's deficit of 2.9 million was the largest of any Electoral 
College winner in history by a massive margin, and despite the 
allegations of the current Administration, there have been only 4 
documented cases of voter fraud in the 2016 election.
  The Voter Fraud Commission, like many of Trump's business schemes, is 
a massive scam built on countless lies that do not hold up to any level 
of scrutiny.
  As Members of Congress, we should be devoting our time, energy, and 
resources to address Russian infiltration of our election 
infrastructure arid campaigns, along with a slew of other pressing 
issues.
  Instead, we must deal with the possibility that the Trump 
Administration's brazen attempt to collect the private information of 
200 million Americans could very well result in the greatest breach of 
our national security if Trump's proposed joint U.S.-Russia 
cybersecurity taskforce is ever realized.
  Both Democratic and Republican governors from 44 states have flat-out 
rejected the Trump Administration's request; saying ``no'' to 
senseless, dangerous power grabs is a bipartisan issue.
  Instead of enjoying and strengthening the protections guaranteed in 
the Voting Rights Act, we--people of color, women, LGBTQ individuals, 
and immigrants--have been given the joyless, exhausting task of fending 
off the constant barrage of attacks levelled at our communities by men 
like Trump.
  Not only are we tasked with reversing the current dismal state of 
voter suppression against minorities; we are forced to refute the 
blatant, propagandist lie of voter fraud.
  We must not allow our government to slide back into the worst 
elements of this country's past, to stand idly by as our treasured 
values of progress and equality are poisoned and dismantled.
  My position on this issue is directly aligned with the will of the 
American people.
  I commend my colleagues, Congresswoman Plaskett and Congressman 
Veasey, for hosting this special order in opposition to the Shelby 
County ruling and Trump's pernicious smear campaign against this 
country's most historically disenfranchised.

                          ____________________