[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 20 (Monday, May 24, 1993)]
[Pages 914-916]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Signing the National Voter Registration Act of 1993

 May 20, 1993

    Thank you very much. Joel, thank you for the T-shirt. In a few 
moments I'll give out bill-signing pens, but I'd rather have the T-
shirt. [Laughter]
    Getting to know the young people across this country, beginning in 
New Hampshire, who pushed the motor voter bill, was one of the most 
rewarding parts of the 1992 campaign. But the effort that we come here 
to celebrate today has a long and venerable heritage.
    A few moments ago, you heard the voice of President Johnson crossing 
the chasm of time back to 1965 as he signed the Voting Rights Act into 
law. As a southerner and as President, his words have special 
significance to me. During my childhood, no family's dinner table, no 
church congregation, no community, and no place of work was immune from 
the searing struggle for civil rights. To hear Johnson's voice is to 
make vivid for me once again those difficult, yet glorious years of 
struggle, difficult and terrible because so many people gave their lives 
moving the stone of freedom up the side of a mountain, glorious because 
the years of contention eventually gave way to an overdue season of 
reconciliation and renewal, and gave our region and our country a second 
chance to fulfill our promise.
    The victory we celebrate today is but the most recent chapter in the 
overlapping struggles of our Nation's history to enfranchise women and 
minorities, the disabled, and the young with the power to affect their 
own destiny and our common destiny by participating fully in our 
democracy. When blacks and women won the right to vote, when we outlawed 
the poll tax and literacy test, when the voting age was lowered to 18, 
and when finally we recognized the rights of disabled Americans, it was 
because the forces of change overcame the indifference of the majority 
and the resistance by the guardians of the status quo. And who 
prevailed? Brave people working at the grassroots, impatient with an 
always imperfect democracy and dedicated to widening the circle of 
liberty to encompass more and more of our fellow citizens.
    I have said many times in many places that in this country we don't 
have a person to waste. Surely the beginning of honoring that pledge is 
making sure the franchise is extended to and used by every eligible 
American. Today we celebrate our noble tradition by signing into law our 
newest civil rights law, the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, 
which all of us know and love as ``motor voter.''
    An extraordinary coalition of organizations, many of whom played 
historic roles in our expanding democratic rights, joined many years ago 
with the hope that they would see this day come. I'm honored to share 
this podium with representatives with three fighters for freedom: the 
NAACP, the League of Women Voters, and Human Serve. I want to pay 
special tribute to Disabled and Able To Vote, to Project Vote, and to 
Rock the Vote, and literally, the scores of other groups for whom the 
goal of full voter participation has been a durable and lasting dream. I 
want to pay special tribute to the young people who lobbied me 
personally for motor voter and who voted with renewed energy and 
conviction for their own futures in the election last November.

[[Page 915]]

    They all labored hard because this bill was necessary. As many as 35 
percent of otherwise eligible voters in our Nation are not registered, 
and the failure to register is the primary reason given by eligible 
citizens for their not voting. The principle behind this legislation is 
clear: Voting should be about discerning the will of the majority, not 
about testing the administrative capacity of a citizen.
    The State of Washington instituted a similar measure during the 1992 
election, and their motor voter program registered in that State alone 
an additional 186,000 people. Motor voter works at registering voters 
and people who register vote.
    With this law and its appropriate implementation by States, voters 
can register by applying for a driver's license, through uniform mail 
application, or by applying in person at various agencies designated by 
the States. As a result, registration for Federal election will become 
as accessible as possible, while the integrity of the electoral process 
is clearly preserved.
    As I said, I have long supported the idea of motor voter. More than 
a year ago, I promised as President that I would sign H.R. 2 and fight 
for its passage. I'm pleased to be able to keep the promise today that I 
made on this Rock the Vote card which still has my signature back in New 
Hampshire.
    I also want to point out that all the President does is lobby for 
and sign laws. If the Congress doesn't pass them, they don't get passed. 
The Rock the Vote card that I signed here says, ``Why don't politicians 
want you to vote?'' Well, there are a lot of Members of the Congress 
here from both parties who do want you to vote, and I want to thank not 
only those on the platform here but all of those out in the audience 
who, after all, passed this bill into law. It was their votes that made 
this day possible.
    This bill in its enactment is a sign of a new vibrancy in our 
democracy. With all the challenges and difficulties, with the years of 
accumulated economic problems we face, with all the divisions among our 
people, there is a new determination to make progress. You can see it in 
many ways: Voter participation was up in November, and after the 
election it didn't stop. Here at the White House, mail has climbed to 
unprecedented levels. After I had been in office 14 weeks, the White 
House had received more mail than was received in all of 1992. We have 
had the switchboards jammed, the E-mail system full. And if you haven't 
gotten an answer to your letter, we're working on it. [Laughter]
    This country is pulsing with the power of individual citizens' ideas 
in their determination to get something done. The legislators who worked 
so hard to adopt this bill, the organizations that gave themselves so 
completely to its endeavor, the young people, the activists, MTV, all of 
them tapped a powerful current of energy that is still flowing in this 
country.
    The Congress has responded in other ways: the United States Senate 
passing just a few days ago a lobbying bill requiring registration by 
all lobbyists and requiring the disclosure of lobbyists' spending on 
Members of Congress is an example of that. The campaign finance reform 
which has been presented, dramatically trying to lower the costs of 
campaigns and reduce the influence of special interest groups, is an 
example of that.
    The current of reform is moving in this country. And those of you 
who helped to bring this bill to pass can take a large share of credit 
not only for this bill but for the general movement and energy and 
involvement and determination of all of our fellow citizens. It was 
never right to sit on the sidelines of our democracy. And now with motor 
voter, there will be fewer and fewer excuses for anyone to do so.
    Let us remember this in closing: Voting is an empty promise unless 
people vote. Now there is no longer the excuse of the difficulty of 
registration. It is the right of every American to vote. It is also the 
responsibility of every American to vote. We have taken an important 
step this morning to protect that right. And I want to challenge Joel 
and all the young people who did so much to register voters for the last 
election, and all of you who did so much to bring this voting rights 
bill to law and all the ones that preceded it, to make sure now that we 
keep the rights alive by making sure that the responsibility to exercise 
it is exercised by every eligible American.

[[Page 916]]

    When we leave here today, we ought to say: This voting rights bill 
and the others will not be in vain. Every year from now on, we're going 
to have more registered voters and more people voting. We're going to 
make the system work. The law empowers us to do it. It's now up to us to 
assume the responsibility to see that it gets done.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 11:32 a.m. on the South Lawn at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Joel Shulkin, University of New 
Hampshire junior who was instrumental in achieving reform of that 
State's voter registration laws and who introduced the President. H.R. 
2, approved May 20, was assigned Public Law No. 103-31.