[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 22154]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       CALIFORNIA RECALL DECISION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Corrine Brown) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased with the 
decision made yesterday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that 
declared the use of older voting machines would again lead to the 
disenfranchisement of minority voters. I applaud the court for deciding 
to assure voters that the basic fundamental requirements of equal 
treatment and fairness are carried out. Underlying this, I quote from 
Justice Kennedy who wrote: ``Voting is one of the most fundamental and 
cherished liberties in our democratic system of government.'' To me, 
the California decision highlights a painful lesson our country learned 
from the 2000 elections, that it is not possible to hold a fair 
democratic election if voters are not guaranteed their votes will be 
fairly counted.
  I read in the paper and have heard on the news a lot of talk about 
hanging chads and other technical problems that led to the Supreme 
Court selecting George W. Bush as the President in the 2000 
Presidential election; but let me tell Members that in my district, 
Florida's third, 27,000 votes were thrown out and never counted. Let me 
repeat, 27,000 votes from precincts 7, 8, 9 and 10 tossed out, never 
counted from minority neighborhoods that vote 98 percent Democratic.
  In California, the voting machines that 44 percent of the voters were 
going to use in the October 7 recall election were so questionable that 
California's Secretary of State, a Republican, was not planning to 
allow this equipment to be used in future elections. And take note, the 
comparison he drew for the dire situation was that California should 
not wait for a Florida-style election problem before going ahead to 
replace their out-of-date voting machines.
  In the court decision, the 9th Circuit stated that 40,000 citizens of 
California would have their votes uncounted because of old machines 
they were planning to use. I repeat, 40,000 votes. In addition, a 
quarter of the State polling places are not yet functioning because 
election officials did not have enough time to prepare for the recall. 
To me, the situation in California clearly shows that we still have 
quite a ways to go in reforming our voting system. And to make matters 
worse, even though just last year we passed an election reform bill, 
the Republicans have blocked full funding. Up to this moment, we still 
need another $2 billion before the end of the year to ensure that we do 
not repeat the 2000 election. Yet if we fail to provide the States with 
this badly needed funding, we may be headed right down the same path, 
to face this terrible situation that we were in just 3 years ago.
  Here we are, 3 years later, the leader of the free world and at the 
same time the laughingstock of the free world telling other nations 
that we do not support them or we are going to sanction them because we 
consider their elections to be unfair; yet here at home we cannot get 
our own elections right.
  I completely support the circuit court's decision and hope to see the 
election postponed until they get better equipment in place. We must 
never, ever repeat what happened in Florida. We certainly do not want 
to witness a repeat of the 2000 Presidential election. In closing, I 
think the recount in Florida, the redistricting problem in Texas, and 
the recall of California's Governor is part of a right wing conspiracy 
to politically enslave the American people.

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