Date: 1985-02-07
Speaker: VANDER JAGT (republican)
Chamber: H

I thank the gentleman for yielding this time to me. Mr. Speaker. the essential facts in this case are very simple. straightforward. and undisputed. Complexity and confusion serve the purpose only of those who would obscure the truth. because I honestly believe that when the truth is known and understood. you will vote to seat Rick McIntyre this afternoon. as we should have January 3. Of course you are partisan Democrats. even as we are partisan Republicans. Of course you would like to protect one of your own and would reach as far as you reasonably can to do so. even as we would. But I believeno. I know that you are Americans first. and I believe when the crunch comes and the facts are known. you will subordinate partisanship to two centuries of precedents in this. the greatest deliberative body that the world has ever seen. noted even more for its fairness than its partisanship. I believe .that when the crunch comes. you will vote not to sacrifice truth. justice. and fairness on the altar of partisanship. even though you have the votes to do it once the facts are known. because once the facts were known and understood by a county Democratic judge. by a Democratic Federal district judge. and by a bipartisan Indiana Supreme Court. the judges ruled unanimously in favor of Rick McIntyre. rejecting the arguments that have been raised so eloquently here today. and the ruling was upheld that Rick McIntyre was the duly certified winner in the Eighth Congressional District. Once the facts were known to recount commissioners on the county level. threefourths of whom were Democrats. Rick McIntyre was the winner of that recount by 415 votes. In fact. in Vanderburgh County there were 2.500 votes disallowed inpredominantly bluecollar white precincts. to which McCloskey made no objection before on the same -basis there were 1.000 votes disallowed in the black precincts. As a matter of fact. if you put back in every vote that was disallowed in the recount by counties. 11 out of 15 which were Democratic. McIntyre wins by 34 votes. No matter how partisan you are. you cannot escape four undisputed simple facts. First. on election night results. Rick McIntyre was the winner. Fact No. 2: On the basis of completed and corrected totals from the counties. all of them certified to the Secretary of State as complete and correct. McIntyre was the winner and was so certified. Fact No. 3: On the basis of the recount. McIntyre is the winner by 450 votes. And fact No. 4: For two centuries. in 82 out of 82 cases. when there was a disputed election. the individual who had the due certificate of election from that State was seated pending the resolution of the controversy or of the recount. Now. the case has been made that there is one exception. and in that exception from Indiana there were two people who showed up. each of them had a certificate of election. and the House wisely said. "You both stand aside until we can figure out which has the valid certificate of election from that State." It is a little bit like an umpire in a baseball game calling "Strike three. youre out." No matter how much you might disagree with the call on that pitch. it stands because the umpire is duly authorized to make that call. Now. in elections. unlike in baseball game. there is an appeals process called recount or referral to the House Administration Committee. and that is fine. But the original call by the duly authorized umpire or official of that State stands until such time as there is an overwhelming case to reverse that original decision. a case beyond on testimony. not press releases. on evidence taken under oath. not on charges and claims. It seems to me that we have a clearcut case here of whether or not we are going to undo a mistake that was made on January 3 when. for the first time in two centuries. we refused to seat a duly authorized winner. The majority made the case on January 3 that "We cant seat him because there is a recount that is in process. and it would be premature." and the argument was made very persuasively that we ought to wait until the recount is over. The recount is over. the final count is in. and McIntyre is an even bigger winner. That excuse is gone. Mr. Speaker. let us seat him as we should do under the Constitution.