[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 107 (Monday, June 21, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4637-S4640]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
BUSINESS BEFORE THE SENATE
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, on today's, tomorrow's, and this week's
business, the Senate will soon vote on two more nominees to join
President Biden's administration: Christopher Fonzone to serve as
general counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence
and Kiran Ahuja to be Director of the Office of Personnel Management.
Those votes will happen tonight and tomorrow.
The discussions on the bipartisan infrastructure bill and a budget
reconciliation bill are both moving forward and will continue
throughout the week.
But tomorrow--tomorrow--the Senate will also take a crucial vote on
whether to start debate on major voting rights legislation.
I want to say that again. Tomorrow, the Senate will take a vote on
whether to start debate on legislation to protect Americans' voting
rights. It is not a vote on any particular policy. It is not a vote on
this bill or that bill. It is a vote on whether the Senate should
simply debate the issue about voting rights--the crucial issue of
voting rights in this country.
Now, by all rights, we shouldn't have to debate voting rights on the
floor of the U.S. Senate. These rights should be sacrosanct, but the
events of the last few months compel us to have this debate now.
Why is there such urgency? Because of what has been happening in
Republican legislature after legislature in the last several months.
Voting rights--the most fundamental right of a democracy, the right
that men and women have died for in wartime and in peacetime, the right
by which all other rights are secured--are under assault--under assault
from one end of the country to the other.
In the wake of the 2020 election, Donald Trump told a lie--a Big
Lie--that the election was stolen from him by voter fraud. There was no
evidence for this. His own administration concluded that the 2020
election was one of the safest in history. His lawyers were laughed out
of courts, many by Republican judges--some by judges he appointed, that
Trump appointed. But he kept saying it anyway. He lied over and over
and over again. Donald Trump lied over and over and over again,
poisoning our democracy, lighting a fire beneath Republican State
legislatures, which immediately launched the most sweeping voter
suppression effort in years.
Just a note, how despicable a man is Donald Trump. He lost an
election legitimately. He can't face that--that it was his failure. And
he creates a lie--a Big Lie--and wins so many people over to that lie
with the help of news media and other news commentators who are lying,
as well, and they know it.
Again, Donald Trump, with his despicable lies, has lit a fire beneath
Republican State legislatures, and they
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have launched the most sweeping voter suppression efforts in at least
80 years.
More than 250 bills in 43 States were introduced just between the
months of January and February that would restrict the right to vote.
Do you want to know how many were introduced during a similar period of
time last year, the year before Donald Trump was telling the Big Lie?
Thirty-five. Thirty-five in 2020 and more than 250 in 2021.
Today, in June, there have been nearly 400 bills introduced. The only
thing that changed between 2020 and 2021 was Donald Trump's Big Lie
about massive fraud.
And now in States like Georgia and Iowa and Florida and Montana,
these proposals are becoming law under the vicious guise of election
integrity. The words ``election integrity'' aren't a guise. There is
nothing vicious about them. The way Republican legislatures are using
those words is vicious and a guise, a falsehood, fake.
I want my Republican colleagues--maybe, we can awaken their
conscience, maybe, on something as sacred as voting rights. I want my
Republican colleagues to listen to some of the policies that have been
proposed by Republican State legislatures and tell me how they are
about election integrity, how they are about suppressing fraud:
Reducing polling hours in polling places. How is that about election
integrity? How does that reduce voter fraud?
Mandating that every precinct, no matter how large or small, have the
same number of ballot drop boxes--a county of a million or a county of
1,000, the same number. How does that reduce fraud? What does that have
to do with election integrity?
No after-hours voting, no 24-hour voting, no drive-through voting.
What does that have to do with election fraud?
It certainly has everything to do with reducing people's right to
vote and the ability to vote, but nothing to do with election fraud.
My Republican colleagues, how does making it a crime to give food or
water to voters waiting in long lines at the polls deter voter fraud,
which, really, we have found no evidence exists, to begin with--very
little evidence?
By the way, in so many States, if you are African American, if you
are inner city, if you are poor, if you are Brown, you have to wait a
lot longer than if you are White and in the suburbs. Don't give them
water. Don't allow them to have a drink as they are waiting in the hot
Sun in line to vote. Yeah. What does that have to do with voter fraud?
It has to do with cruelty, it has to do with nastiness, and it has to
do with suppressing the vote.
Allowing a judge to overturn an election; allowing a partisan State
election board to replace a duly elected county election board member
if they are underperforming--what does that have to do with fraud? What
does that have to do with fraud?
Removing student IDs from the list of valid forms of identification--
that is election integrity? Bunk. We know what you are doing. You don't
want students to vote. Yeah. Don't let students vote. Turn them off to
the whole process, and make America even more alienated.
Delaying the hours of Sunday voting until the evening, which,
coincidentally or not so coincidentally, by these Republican
legislatures makes it harder for Black churchgoers to participate in
voter drives after Sunday services--how despicable. Does that sound
like Jim Crow, my Republican colleagues? It sure does to a lot of us.
I challenge my Republican colleagues. I challenge you, Republican
Senators: Come to the floor. Defend these policies. Tell us how they
secure the vote. Tell us how they prevent nearly nonexistent voter
fraud. How does removing student IDs as a valid form of identification
secure our elections? Do you have any evidence that 40-year-olds are
showing up at the polls with fake student IDs? Come on, show us. How is
criminalizing giving water or food to voters in a line a fraud
prevention measure? You got any evidence of that? What arguments do
Republicans have for restrictions on Sunday voting? That is what Texas
Senators--Texas Republicans want to do. Do any of my colleagues
actually have evidence that voter fraud is especially prevalent on the
Lord's Day? Please. We know what you are up to. America knows what you
are up to. And not to debate this? Are you afraid to debate it? Do you
not have any good arguments?
Let's dispense with this nonsense. There is no real principle behind
these policies. They are not about election integrity, and they are not
about voter fraud. These policies have one purpose and one purpose
only: making it harder for younger, poorer, non-White, and typically
Democratic voters to access the ballot and to give Republicans a
partisan advantage at the polls by making it harder for Democratic-
leaning voters to vote.
You lose an election, you are not supposed to stop people from
voting, even if they didn't vote for you. That is not democracy, my
Republican friends. You lose an election, you are supposed to try
harder to win over the voters you lost.
Republicans across the country are trying to stop the other side from
voting. That tears and rips apart the very fabric of our democracy.
Disenfranchising millions of Americans is bad enough, but there is
actually another sinister component of these voter suppression laws. In
States like Arizona, Kansas, Arkansas, and Georgia, Republican
legislatures are trying to give more power to themselves and other
partisan bodies to undermine, override, and neuter bipartisan election
boards and county-elected officials.
It has always been bipartisan. They didn't like the result. They lost
fair and square. Get rid of the election board official when there is
no evidence they did anything wrong. The cumulative effect will make it
easier for followers of Trump's Big Lie, for partisan Republicans to
rig the rules and try to overturn election results.
I read this article in the New York Times this weekend. You could
weep from reading it. They reported that at least 10 members of county
election boards in Georgia have been removed or are about to be removed
in the wake of the new law passed by the GOP legislature. These are the
folks who are in charge of selecting ballot drop box locations. They
pointed out an African-American woman who made sure that a poor area
had a drop box every year to allow people to vote. They want to kick
her off the board. No one knows why. We do know why. There is no real,
legitimate reason why. According to the Times, who are they kicking
off? At least five are people of color, most are Democrats, and they
are all most likely to be replaced by Republicans.
Please, my colleagues, read this article. Read this article on how
Republican States are expanding their power over elections, by Nick
Corasaniti and Reid J. Epstein, June 19, 2021. Read it. Can you read
this article and still believe what Republican legislatures are doing
is on the level? Can you read this article and believe they are not
trying to jaundice and bias voting from what has traditionally been a
process that is free and open and fair in many places--in most places?
Read it. Just read it. It makes you want to weep what they are doing.
This nice lady, who just wanted to help her people vote in a fair and
honest way, gets kicked off the board or is getting kicked off the
board.
Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the
Record this full article from the New York Times dated June 19, 2021
[From the New York Times, June 19, 2021]
How Republican States Are Expanding Their Power Over Elections
(By Nick Corasaniti and Reid J. Epstein)
In Georgia, Republicans are removing Democrats of color
from local boards. In Arkansas, they have stripped election
control from county authorities. And they are expanding their
election power in many other states.
Lonnie Hollis has been a member of the Troup County
election board in West Georgia since 2013. A Democrat and one
of two Black women on the board, she has advocated Sunday
voting, helped voters on Election Days and pushed for a new
precinct location at a Black church in a nearby town.
But this year, Ms. Hollis will be removed from the board,
the result of a local election law signed by Gov. Brian Kemp,
a Republican. Previously, election board members were
selected by both political parties, county commissioners and
the three biggest municipalities in Troup County. Now, the
G.O.P.-controlled county commission has the sole authority to
restructure the board and appoint all the new members.
``I speak out and I know the laws,'' Ms. Hollis said in an
interview. ``The bottom line is they don't like people that
have some type
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of intelligence and know what they're doing, because they
know they can't influence them.''
Ms. Hollis is not alone. Across Georgia, members of at
least 10 county election boards have been removed, had their
position eliminated or are likely to be kicked off through
local ordinances or new laws passed by the state legislature.
At least five are people of color and most are Democrats--
though some are Republicans--and they will most likely all be
replaced by Republicans.
Ms. Hollis and local officials like her have been some of
the earliest casualties as Republican-led legislatures mount
an expansive takeover of election administration in a raft of
new voting bills this year.
G.O.P. lawmakers have also stripped secretaries of state of
their power, asserted more control over state election
boards, made it easier to overturn election results, and
pursued several partisan audits and inspections of 2020
results.
Republican state lawmakers have introduced at least 216
bills in 41 states to give legislatures more power over
elections officials, according to the States United Democracy
Center, a new bipartisan organization that aims to protect
democratic norms. Of those, 24 have been enacted into law
across 14 states.
G.O.P. lawmakers in Georgia say the new measures are meant
to improve the performance of local boards, and reduce the
influence of the political parties. But the laws allow
Republicans to remove local officials they don't like, and
because several of them have been Black Democrats, voting
rights groups fear that these are further attempts to
disenfranchise voters of color.
The maneuvers risk eroding some of the core checks that
stood as a bulwark against former President Donald J. Trump
as he sought to subvert the 2020 election results. Had these
bills been in place during the aftermath of the election,
Democrats say, they would have significantly added to the
turmoil Mr. Trump and his allies wrought by trying to
overturn the outcome. They worry that proponents of Mr.
Trump's conspiracy theories will soon have much greater
control over the levers of the American elections system.
``It's a thinly veiled attempt to wrest control from
officials who oversaw one of the most secure elections in our
history and put it in the hands of bad actors,'' said Jena
Griswold, the chairwoman of the Democratic Association of
Secretaries of State and the current Colorado secretary of
state. ``The risk is the destruction of democracy.''
Officials like Ms. Hollis are responsible for decisions
like selecting drop box and precinct locations, sending out
voter notices, establishing early voting hours and certifying
elections. But the new laws are targeting high-level state
officials as well, in particular secretaries of state--both
Republican and Democratic--who stood up to Mr. Trump and his
allies last year.
Republicans in Arizona have introduced a bill that would
largely strip Katie Hobbs, the Democratic secretary of state,
of her authority over election lawsuits, and then expire when
she leaves office. And they have introduced another bill that
would give the Legislature more power over setting the
guidelines for election administration, a major task
currently carried out by the secretary of state.
Under Georgia's new voting law, Republicans significantly
weakened the secretary of state's office after Brad
Raffensperger, a Republican who is the current secretary,
rebuffed Mr. Trump's demands to ``find'' votes. They removed
the secretary of state as the chair of the state election
board and relieved the office of its voting authority on the
board.
Kansas Republicans in May overrode a veto from Gov. Laura
Kelly, a Democrat, to enact laws stripping the governor of
the power to modify election laws and prohibiting the
secretary of state, a Republican who repeatedly vouched for
the security of voting by mail, from settling election-
related lawsuits without the Legislature's consent.
And more Republicans who cling to Mr. Trump's election lies
are running for secretary of state, putting a critical office
within reach of conspiracy theorists. In Georgia,
Representative Jody Hice, a Republican who voted against
certifying President Biden's victory, is running against Mr.
Raffensperger. Republican candidates with similar views are
running for secretary of state in Nevada, Arizona and
Michigan.
``In virtually every state, every election administrator is
going to feel like they're under the magnifying glass,'' said
Victoria Bassetti, a senior adviser to the States United
Democracy Center.
More immediately, it is local election officials at the
county and municipal level who are being either removed or
stripped of their power.
In Arkansas, Republicans were stung last year when Jim
Sorvillo, a three-term state representative from Little Rock,
lost re-election by 24 votes to Ashley Hudson, a Democrat and
local lawyer. Elections officials in Pulaski County, which
includes Little Rock, were later found to have accidentally
tabulated 327 absentee ballots during the vote-counting
process, 27 of which came from the district.
Mr. Sorvillo filed multiple lawsuits aiming to stop Ms.
Hudson from being seated, and all were rejected. The
Republican caucus considered refusing to seat Ms. Hudson,
then ultimately voted to accept her.
But last month, Arkansas Republicans wrote new legislation
that allows a state board of election commissioners--composed
of six Republicans and one Democrat--to investigate and
``institute corrective action'' on a wide variety of issues
at every stage of the voting process, from registration to
the casting and counting of ballots to the certification of
elections. The law applies to all counties, but it is widely
believed to be aimed at Pulaski, one of the few in the state
that favor Democrats.
The author of the legislation, State Representative Mark
Lowery, a Republican from a suburb of Little Rock, said it
was necessary to remove election power from the local
authorities, who in Pulaski County are Democrats, because
otherwise Republicans could not get a fair shake.
``Without this legislation, the only entity you could have
referred impropriety to is the prosecuting attorney, who is a
Democrat, and possibly not had anything done,'' Mr. Lowery
said in an interview. ``This gives another level of
investigative authority to a board that is commissioned by
the state to oversee elections.''
Asked about last year's election, Mr. Lowery said, ``I do
believe Donald Trump was elected president.''
A separate new Arkansas law allows a state board to ``take
over and conduct elections'' in a county if a committee of
the legislature determines that there are questions about the
``appearance of an equal, free and impartial election.''
In Georgia, the legislature passed a unique law for some
counties. For Troup County, State Representative Randy Nix, a
Republican, said he had introduced the bill that restructured
the county election board--and will remove Ms. Hollis--only
after it was requested by county commissioners. He said he
was not worried that the commission, a partisan body with
four Republicans and one Democrat, could exert influence over
elections.
``The commissioners are all elected officials and will face
the voters to answer for their actions,'' Mr. Nix said in an
email.
Eric Mosley, the county manager for Troup County, which Mr.
Trump carried by 22 points, said that the decision to ask Mr.
Nix for the bill was meant to make the board more bipartisan.
It was unanimously supported by the commission.
``We felt that removing both the Republican and Democratic
representation and just truly choose members of the community
that invest hard to serve those community members was the
true intent of the board,'' Mr. Mosley said. ``Our goal is to
create both political and racial diversity on the board.''
In Morgan County, east of Atlanta, Helen Butler has been
one of the state's most prominent Democratic voices on voting
rights and election administration. A member of the county
board of elections in a rural, Republican county, she also
runs the Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda, a group
dedicated to protecting the voting rights of Black Americans
and increasing their civic engagement.
But Ms. Butler will be removed from the county board at the
end of the month, after Mr. Kemp signed a local bill that
ended the ability of political parties to appoint members.
``I think it's all a part of the ploy for the takeover of
local boards of elections that the state legislature has put
in place,'' Ms. Butler said. ``It is them saying that they
have the right to say whether an election official is doing
it right, when in fact they don't work in the day to day and
don't understand the process themselves.''
It's not just Democrats who are being removed. In DeKalb
County, the state's fourth-largest, Republicans chose not to
renominate Baoky Vu to the election board after more than 12
years in the position. Mr. Vu, a Republican, had joined with
Democrats in a letter opposing an election-related bill that
eventually failed to pass.
To replace Mr. Vu, Republicans nominated Paul Maner, a
well-known local conservative with a history of false
statements, including an insinuation that the son of a
Georgia congresswoman was killed in ``a drug deal gone bad.''
Back in LaGrange, Ms. Hollis is trying to do as much as she
can in the time she has left on the board. The extra precinct
in nearby Hogansville, where the population is roughly 50
percent Black, is a top priority. While its population is
only about 3,000, the town is bifurcated by a rail line, and
Ms. Hollis said that sometimes it can take an exceedingly
long time for a line of freight cars to clear, which is
problematic on Election Days.
``We've been working on this for over a year,'' Ms. Hollis
said, saying Republicans had thrown up procedural hurdles to
block the process. But she was undeterred.
``I'm not going to sit there and wait for you to tell me
what it is that I should do for the voters there,'' she said.
``I'm going to do the right thing.''
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, my Republican friends are fond of
saying that they just want to make it easier to vote and harder to
cheat in an election. But when you look at what they are actually
doing, it is spectacularly obvious that Republicans are making it
harder to vote and easier to steal an election. The Big Lie that
started with Donald Trump is infecting them--infecting them. Lies don't
matter, and they don't matter when it comes to the sacred process of
elections--free, open, fair elections where everyone has an opportunity
to vote.
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Do my colleagues forget? Remember what Donald Trump did? Was he
interested in a free, open, fair election? Donald Trump tried to
pressure local officials to overturn a democratic election in America.
It was a stress test on our democracy unlike any in recent history, but
our institutions held. So now what do Republicans want to do? Change
the results. Change the election officials.
Again, Trump tried to pressure local officials to overturn democratic
elections in a huge stress test on our democracy. Our institutions
held. Local officials certified election results. The courts rejected
spurious claims of fraud. Vice President Pence, no less, opened the
proper envelopes. The House and Senate came together to count the
results of the electoral college in the immediate aftermath of an armed
insurrection.
Now--now--because they couldn't win the election and our
institutions, our democratic--small ``d,'' democratic--institutions
held, they want to change who is running the elections to be partisan
and biased. Republican State legislatures are actively removing many of
the barriers that prevented Donald Trump from subverting our elections.
Shame. Shame. Shame.
I lay all this information at the feet of my Republican colleagues: a
sweeping effort to disenfranchise millions of voters, mostly Black and
Brown students, the working poor; an attack on the checks that held our
democracy together in the face of Donald Trump's assaults. Many of us
wondered: Will these institutions hold? Would Trump-appointed judges
tell the Trump lawyers that they were full of bunk and there wasn't
fraud? They did. It was a glorious moment for our democracy, and the
Republican majority here in the Senate wants to undo it and doesn't
even want to debate it.
We can argue what should be done to protect voting rights and
safeguard our democracy, but don't you think we should be able to
debate the issue? The vote tomorrow is on, to my people watching. It is
called a motion to proceed. It is how we get bills on the floor of the
Senate. It needs 60 votes to be able to be debated. Will our
Republicans let us debate it? That is the only question on the table
for the U.S. Senate tomorrow, and we are about to find out how my
Republican colleagues will answer that question.
I yield the floor.
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