[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 1]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 142]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                               OBJECTION

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. DONALD M. PAYNE

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Saturday, January 6, 2001

  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, in a short while we will gather in a joint 
session to count the electoral vote from November's Presidential 
contest. We will count these votes even though the Republican 
appointees on the Supreme Court slammed the door in the face of 
thousands of Florida voters by refusing to allow their votes to be 
counted. Ironically, Republican legal advisors used the ``equal 
protection'' clause of the 14th amendment to argue their case while 
denying equal protection to thousands whose votes were never counted. 
The message calls to mind George Orwell's famous words that ``some are 
more equal than others.''
  One fact is not in dispute: that Vice President Al Gore won over 
539,000 more votes nationwide than George W. Bush. That makes it even 
more important that we get an accurate vote in Florida.
  As a member of the House International Relations Committee, I have 
had the privilege of monitoring elections around the world. Never have 
I seen a case like this--where one candidate's first cousin was hired 
by a major news network to call the election results; where that same 
candidate's campaign cochair had the authority to certify the election 
results and rushed to do so before all ballots had been counted; where 
the certification was signed by the candidate's brother, the Governor, 
and where Supreme Court members appointed by the candidate's father 
halted a vote count. Is this the model of democracy we want to hold up 
to the rest of the world? I urge my colleagues to refuse to be a part 
of this undemocratic process.

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