[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 135 (Thursday, July 30, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4623-S4625]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Elections

  Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, while I come to the floor this 
afternoon, I am kind of questioning whether the heat of Washington, DC, 
has gotten to people. Clearly, it has been a record July here, with 90-
plus degree temperatures every day. But the notion that we should 
somehow cancel the election in the fall, I think, is either the heat of 
the moment or just clear wrongheadedness.
  I have been waiting for some time to come to floor to talk about our 
voting system and why it is so important to protect it and why now we 
should recognize that Americans, in having to deal with the 
coronavirus, have had the ability to vote and the ability to get there 
and the ability to be protected while they are voting. It has occurred 
in several elections that we need to be doing more.
  That is why I continue to support the efforts of our colleagues to 
make sure that we are doing everything we can to protect elections.
  I know that Leader McConnell has proposed the HEALS Act, but it 
doesn't contain any money for helping safe and secure elections in 
November. I know that the House bill, the Heroes Act, does help put 
money in place to keep polling workers safe during the pandemic. I know 
that we have other legislation, whether it is Senator Wyden's bill, 
which I am on, the Vote By Mail

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Act, which would help eligible U.S. voters vote by mail, or whether it 
is other legislation, like that of my colleague Senator Klobuchar, to 
help back up paper ballots and create election security grants to help 
States improve their cybersecurity.
  I have talked many times at many hearings about our challenges with 
cybersecurity, and I know that all this legislation--my colleagues have 
been out here on the floor, and they have tried to bring them up, but 
to no avail.
  Well, I think instead of suggesting that the election be canceled, 
the President should be advocating that Congress pass aid and 
assistance to States to make sure that, during the COVID pandemic, 
things are in place so that poll workers can get to their jobs on time, 
that they can work effectively in doing that and protect their health 
and security and protect the health and security of the public. What I 
don't think he should do is to diminish the very important role that 
mail-in ballot voting has had in the United States of America.
  I say that coming from a State where we have mail-in ballots. The 
mail-in ballot system has grown over time to be the primary way in 
which we vote in the State of Washington. I say it is the primary way 
because I am sure there are ways that people can show up and vote at 
particular election offices, and there are probably other things. But, 
no, we don't have an election site. For those who love going to the 
polling places as a way to exercise their democracy and their rights, I 
appreciate that too. There is nothing better than participating in the 
democracy of an election by going there and casting a vote. But you 
also can increase the participation of the American public to vote by 
mail if you give them that opportunity.
  So it just happened to occur that on my way in today, I was actually 
trying to cast my own ballot; that is, I have my mail-in ballot for the 
August 4 election that is going to happen next week, and I want to make 
sure I fulfill my constitutional duty to vote in the next election. So 
I think it is a great opportunity to come to the Senate floor and put 
stock really to the myth that I think the President is continuing to 
create that you cannot vote by mail.
  Here is my mail-in ballot. Here is the ballot that is sent to my home 
address in Edmonds, WA. It basically has the date of the election on it 
and requires me to fill it out and return it. What is great about this 
ballot is this. First of all, I love mail-in voting.
  Even if I liked going to the polling place, what you now get 
enclosed, in addition to your ballot, is a voters' guide, which is sent 
by the secretary of State. It is pretty thick because candidates also 
give a statement about why they are running. Literally, the citizens of 
Washington, weeks in advance before getting this ballot, can sit and 
leaf through the various positions of candidates, and they also include 
websites. If you want to go to the candidate's website and look up more 
information about a candidate or see where they stand on an issue, it 
is a guide that helps you understand what your ballot is and who is on 
it.
  Who doesn't think that is a great way to inform the American people 
about voting? We have one of the highest voting rates in the Nation. As 
I say that, I know that there are States that are not mail-in ballot 
States that also have high numbers in Presidential election years, but 
the great thing about our vote-by-mail system is we have a pretty good 
participation by our public in off-year elections. The school board 
election or local county election or even a regional election gets the 
attention that I believe is important for democracy and for voter 
participation.
  I actually happened to start filling out my ballot this morning. I am 
not going to show everybody whom I voted for, but I will just show you 
what the front of the ballot looks like.
  I did vote already in the Governor's race. No doubt I voted for a 
Democrat. I am a Democrat.
  At the top of this ballot, once I am done, I get to tear off this 
device right here. It says: I voted. So there I go. I got a little 
boost to my democracy gene. I am so glad I participated.
  Here is the actual number of this ballot and an ID, and I tear that 
off. I tear that off and keep it. I keep this, and this is proof that I 
mailed this ballot. That is the great part of our system.
  Just for those who are really curious about this, I now have a 
privacy envelope. Now that I am done filling out my ballot, I stick it 
in this privacy envelope. Why do I do that? If somebody thinks that my 
privacy is violated because on the outside of this envelope I sign this 
signature, they separate these two things. This privacy envelope 
separates this and throws the ballots that are legitimate to be 
counted, and now no one knows exactly how I voted.
  I take this privacy envelope, and I stick it in the official document 
envelope that I am going to mail back. So I stick it in there, and 
guess what I have to do? I have to sign and date it. That signature is 
the validation of this system. It is the validation by my signature, 
the same as when I went into a voting booth, as we used to do, and 
signed my name. It is a validation against someone who is trying to 
create mischief with this system. It is what makes the vote-by-mail 
system work effectively in our State. I say that because our State has 
had many close elections, and yet no one has ever contested the outcome 
of the final election because we go through this system.
  Yes, we have had some very interesting incidents. We had a very close 
Governor's race once, where as they were recounting the ballots and 
counting through the official system, a gentleman owned up that he had 
voted for his wife who had died. He was so worried that he was going to 
get caught in this system that he owned up in advance and said: I am 
sorry. I might be one of the seven final votes in this decision, and I 
want to tell people I made a mistake. I know that she was so 
enthusiastic, but she passed away, and it was just a few days ago. So I 
went ahead and voted for her.
  So, no, that is not allowed under this system. This system works 
because we know who people are, and we have a validation of this 
system. This system allows us to participate and understand the 
election process.
  So I don't know why the President will not let America vote, only if 
they vote in a way that he thinks is--well, I am not sure, because now 
he is saying we should delay the election. He is saying it should be 
delayed. I am saying what the President should be doing to help the 
constitutional rights of American citizens is protecting their right to 
vote by helping to secure our election sites with enough workers, 
people working at the polls if they choose to go and do that, and also 
protecting our mail-in ballot system by allowing those States that want 
to pursue a mail-in ballot to make sure that those ballots work and are 
delivered on time so that they can be counted.

  I don't expect every State in the Union to adopt the same philosophy 
as the State of Washington, but clearly our State allows enough time 
for those ballots to get there. They allow so many days after the 
election. Why? Because we have a lot of military. We have 10 military 
bases, and we have a lot of people from Washington who are stationed 
overseas, and their ballots should not be made invalid just because 
they mailed them before the election but somehow, because of the travel 
time, they didn't get there in a timely fashion. So our State considers 
7 days, the postmark after 7 days if it is delivered.
  I know that for some people this is all new. They don't want to move 
to this. I guarantee you, in 25 years we will all be voting by mail. 
This system will be in place, and we will be asking ourselves: Why did 
we drag our feet?
  I am at least heartened to hear that my Republican colleagues in the 
Senate have squashed the President's idea of canceling the election. 
Now what I want to hear is, Are they going to help us get the dollars 
and the systems in place to allow America to vote, to allow them to 
vote with confidence, not to constantly hear an undermining of that 
process but a support of that process, and not to undermine vote-by-
mail, because it has worked in Washington? It has worked.
  I was elected in the year 2000 and only won by 2,229 votes--not a 
lot--cast out of the huge number of voters in our State. Yet people had 
confidence in that system. It is not as if the numbers didn't change in 
a recount here or there or somebody found a mistake here or there. It 
was that we had a system where you can find a mistake.

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  So stop trying to cancel the election based on the success of what 
has empowered more Americans to vote and be involved and be educated in 
our democracy. Let America vote, and let's get on with putting the 
securities in place that will help America get to the polling places in 
a secure fashion and get their ballots to the election officials in a 
timely manner.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.