[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 23, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2856-S2857]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Secure Elections

  Mr. NELSON. Madam President, the right to vote is one of the most 
precious rights we have here in America. How we protect it is so 
cherished, and it is also cherished by peoples all over the world who 
don't get a chance to exercise that right. Our constitutional 
foundation is built on a process of free, fair, and unfettered 
elections.
  Well, what happened in this country 2 years ago put a crack in that 
foundation, and it started to sow the seeds of doubt that, if gone 
unchecked, could undermine our entire democracy. After painstaking 
analyses by the intelligence community, which are in complete 
agreement--unanimous in the IC--we know that Russia interfered in our 
2016 election. We know that Russia continues to meddle in the elections 
of not only our country now but in other countries around the world. We 
saw that in the elections in Europe last year. Fortunately, what they 
tried in France backfired on them, and they didn't get their candidate 
to win. We also know that if we don't act now, they are likely going to 
continue this interference in the elections here in this country that 
are coming up in just a few months.
  The threat that we face today from Russia's meddling in our elections 
and attempting to undermine our democracy is really one of the greatest 
threats we face. Congress recognizes this threat, and we have taken 
action to protect that vote. But none of it matters if respective 
States will not work with us and take this threat seriously.
  So last March we passed a bill that authorized $380 million to help 
State elections officials strengthen their elections security and 
update their elections equipment. Now, of the total of $380 million for 
the country, $19 million of it was set aside for my State, the State of 
Florida. While at least a dozen other States have applied for and 
received funding to help them protect their systems from Russian 
intrusion, my State of Florida hasn't even applied for one single 
dollar of the $19 million set aside for Florida--not one.
  In fact, the government of Florida through Florida's secretary of 
State said recently that it is not planning to apply for any funding to 
improve security during the upcoming November election. Obviously, when 
you consider the risk and what Russia did, which the intelligence 
community all agree was done to us in the last election, why in the 
world would the State of Florida not apply for any of the $19 million 
set aside for our State? We know that Russia had intruded into the 
election mechanism and records of 21 States, and the State of Florida 
was one of those States.
  Although we don't know what kind of interference the Russians are 
going to try in the upcoming November elections, we do know that 
Russian President Vladimir Putin--having interfered in 2016 and causing 
so much chaos and, therefore, attacking the very foundation of our 
constitutional democracy--is likely to do it again. So why wouldn't the 
government of the State of Florida apply for $19 million of funds set 
aside for Florida to upgrade and protect our election system?
  We know we are not the only country that has been attacked and, 
according to the U.S. intelligence community, he obviously is going to 
continue this type of behavior. So we better get ready.
  That is why we have such a heavy responsibility to defend America 
from these types of attacks and to defend our process of free, fair, 
and unfettered elections. We need to rebuild trust in our elections, 
and at the same time we

[[Page S2857]]

need to ensure that every citizen who wishes to exercise their right to 
vote is able to do so. It also can be counted, and it can be counted as 
they intended it to count.

  Remember this goes back to 1965. Congress passed the Voting Rights 
Act of 1965 to protect the right of every citizen to vote. But in a 5-
to-4 Supreme Court decision, it declared that part of that law was 
outdated, and it removed much needed voter protections that we have 
come to rely on for minorities, and we have come to rely on them for 
the last half century.
  Part of this Supreme Court decision struck down part of the law as it 
applied to protecting minorities in certain counties in the State of 
Florida. The Justices voted to strike down that important part of the 
Voting Rights Act on a 5-to-4 decision. They said that it was outdated 
because we no longer have the blatant voter suppression tactics we once 
did years and decades ago.
  I disagree. We have seen a lot of voter suppression. Since the 2010 
election, we have seen a number of States, including my State of 
Florida, approve voting restrictions targeted directly at reducing 
turnout among young, low-income, and minority voters. Why? Because they 
traditionally support one particular party.
  In 2011, for example, the Florida legislature, State officials, and 
the Governor of Florida reduced the number of early voting days in 
Florida, including canceling the Sunday before the Tuesday election as 
an early-voting date. It is not a coincidence that there was use of 
early-voting days, particularly on weekends--particularly on that 
Sunday before the Tuesday election, where people become sensitive and 
recognize that there is about to be an election day. We have found that 
particularly minority voters in Florida--African Americans, as well as 
Hispanics--would take advantage of voting when they did not have to go 
to work. You have heard the term ``Souls to the Polls.'' So often, 
after church on Sunday, many church members would go to the polls.
  They made voting more difficult for people who had moved to a 
different county. It became more difficult, even though we have a very 
mobile population moving within a State. They also made it more 
difficult for young people, particularly college students, who changed 
their address because they had moved and wanted to vote in the town 
where the university was, but their identification often was their 
driver's license, which showed their parents' residence. Again, this 
made it more difficult instead of making it easier to vote.
  The State of Florida subjected voter registration groups like the 
League of Women Voters, which had been registering voters for three-
quarters of a century--suddenly, they were subjected to penalties and 
fines if they didn't return the signatures in a short period of time, 
which was impossible if they got the signatures over a weekend. And 
they would nitpick with penalties and fines on some small mistake when 
they were trying to help someone register to vote. Happily, the League 
of Women Voters went to Federal court, and the Federal judge threw that 
law out as unconstitutional. But that decision was right before the 
election, and lo and behold, the League of Women Voters had lost a year 
and a half of voter registration.
  You won't believe this. In 2014, an elections official in Miami-
Dade--which was, coincidentally, one of the more Democratic counties in 
the State--closed restrooms to voters who were waiting in line at the 
polling sites. As a matter of fact, there was so much chaos in one 
previous election--the election of 2012--that lines were upward of 7 
hours long.
  I will never forget the woman who was a century old--100 years. 
Everybody kept bringing her a chair and bringing her water. Well, some 
of those waiting in lines didn't have the opportunity to go to the 
restroom, despite waiting to vote for hours and hours.
  In that same election cycle, 2014, the State's top elections official 
told a local election supervisor not to allow voters to submit absentee 
ballots at remote drop-off sites, ordering that elections official that 
there could be only one site. That supervisor of elections, by the way, 
told the State of Florida to go take a hike--that they had a way of 
securing the ballots by dropping them in several different sites that 
were formerly approved.
  Then the State of Florida denied a request from the city of 
Gainesville to use a University of Florida campus building for early 
voting, a move seen by some as a direct assault on student voting. Can 
you believe that? The State of Florida government, through the 
Secretary of the State, is going to order the University of Florida not 
to allow the student center on campus to be a place of convenience for 
students to cast an early vote. That order has stood. It has stood, and 
instead of making it easier for people to vote, it has made it harder. 
All too often, we have let these things go.
  This Senator is not letting it go because the League of Women Voters 
in Florida has now taken the government of the State of Florida to 
Federal court on behalf of students at the University of Florida, as 
well as Florida State, saying: You are arbitrarily saying that we 
cannot vote in a convenient place on campus, in a government-owned 
public building on campus. You cannot order that we cannot use that in 
anticipation of elections this coming November.
  Too often we find ourselves divided on these issues of party 
politics, but that shouldn't be the case. There should be no 
disagreement when it comes to protecting the right to vote and making 
it easier, not harder, for people to vote. Why? Because we ought to be 
Americans first, not partisans first. We should be Americans first, and 
the State of Florida should get its act in order to let the people 
vote.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Georgia.