[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11369]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           VOTER SUPPRESSION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Ohio (Ms. Fudge) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. FUDGE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address bills pending or 
already signed into law in 47 States that will disenfranchise voters. 
These bills will prohibit address changes at the polls, end volunteer-
run voter registration drives, eliminate same-day voter registration, 
and limit the ability of absentee voters to cast their ballot. Many of 
the bills include highly restrictive voter photo identification 
requirements.
  Just this month, Mr. Speaker, the Ohio State Legislature passed and 
Governor Kasich signed into law one of the most draconian voter 
measures in the Nation. Ohio's House bill 194 invalidates a vote where 
a voter properly marks the ballot in support of a particular candidate 
but also writes in the name of that same candidate. These bills 
dramatically reduce the time allotted for early voting and eliminate 
the requirement that poll workers direct voters to the correct 
precinct. These new policies are a clear attempt to prevent certain 
predetermined segments of the population from exercising their right to 
vote.
  To be frank, Mr. Speaker, these efforts have an all too familiar 
stench of the Jim Crow era. The bill pending in my State and all the 
others are the works of covert opportunists seeking to disenfranchise 
and suppress the rights of American citizens. I'm here today to tell 
you that we will not relinquish our constitutional rights, and we plan 
to fight to uphold the franchise others fought and died to protect. We 
will not lie down.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend from North Carolina, Mr. G.K. 
Butterfield.
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. I thank the gentlelady for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, across the country, Republican-led legislatures are 
pushing and passing laws that will suppress minority and elderly voters 
in the coming election. Under the guise of ``eliminating voter fraud,'' 
Republicans have a solution to a problem that simply does not exist. In 
my home State of North Carolina, where the Republican legislature is 
attempting to require voter ID at the polls, there were only 44 cases 
of voter fraud in the 2008 and 2010 elections combined. Forty-four 
cases out of over 7 million ballots cast. Is this a serious voter 
problem? No.
  Unfortunately, it is a cynical and malicious Republican attempt to 
suppress minority and elderly voters who turned out in historical 
numbers for the 2008 elections. Almost one-fourth of African American 
voting age citizens and one-fifth of seniors do not have government-
issued ID; yet new laws require them to pay for IDs in order to vote. 
This is a poll tax. We must inform our constituents that their 
fundamental right in a democracy is being infringed and fight back 
against this voter suppression epidemic.
  Ms. FUDGE. Mr. Speaker, I now yield to my good friend, the 
Congresswoman from Florida, Corrine Brown.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. All across the country we are witnessing 
efforts to suppress minority voting rights. How is this being done? By 
deterring minority voters from registering to vote and from going to 
the polls in an organized effort to turn the clock back to the period 
prior to the 1965 Voting Rights Act. I am from Florida, and in my 
State, our current Governor, Rick Scott, is doing everything he can to 
follow in the steps of what has occurred across the country, striving 
to stamp out the gains we worked so hard for so many, many years to 
achieve.
  In Florida, earlier this year, Governor Scott signed the Omnibus 
Elections bill, which takes away many of Florida voters' basic rights. 
Its provisions include numerous hideous items much like those in bills 
passed in other State legislatures around the Nation to keep African 
Americans and Hispanics from going to the polls or refraining from 
participating in early voting in the upcoming 2012 elections.
  The new law passed in Florida would make voting more difficult for 
people who have recently changed residence as well as shorten early 
voting time, from 14 days to 6 days. It would provide a 100-foot buffer 
between voters standing in line to get information. And it goes on and 
on and on. In addition, it imposes a $50 fine on election supervisors 
who are late in filing routine reports to the State.
  After what happened in Florida in the 2000 coup d'etat, it is amazing 
to me that Florida would pass such hideous laws. I think it's very 
important that the Justice Department weigh in and that the people in 
Florida are not disenfranchised.

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