[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16656]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           VOTER SUPPRESSION

  (Ms. FUDGE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. FUDGE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to address the right of every 
American, and that is the right to vote.
  Republicans across this Nation are attempting to suppress certain 
predetermined populations of eligible voters. In Ohio, they are trying 
to limit voting by mail, which greatly affects seniors, the disabled, 
and students.
  In 2009, in the county in which I live, Cuyahoga County, we 
eliminated 26 percent of all of our precincts because of the 
effectiveness of our vote-by-mail operation. We saved more than $1.2 
million on voting machines alone. And with fewer precincts, we save at 
least $800,000 for each countywide election by having people vote by 
mail. Yet Republicans passed legislation that would restrict counties 
from mailing ballots. As a consequence, this year alone, early voting 
is down by one-third from last year.
  With such an efficient vote-by-mail system, why would Republicans 
seek to eliminate mail ballots or to confuse voters? Why are 
Republicans pushing policies that seem to have no other objective than 
to disenfranchise our citizens?

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