Date: 2011-11-16
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

I thank the gentleman for yielding. Its really wonderful that the gentleman from Texas has organized this opportunity to have Members come to the floor and highlight our concerns and our commitment to protect the fundamental right and the very bedrock of our Democratic principlesthe right to vote. I am pleased to stand with so many of my colleagues who all share my deep concern over the organized. insidious effort now underway in many States to disenfranchise millions of Americans and to silence their voices in our democracy. These efforts are purported to combat socalled rampant voter fraud. yet no investigative effort to date has found voter fraud to be a major problem in our Nation. so no one should fall for this ruse. As my colleague from Florida just outlined. every American should understand and be concerned about the political disenfranchisement that is going on in many States. including in my home State of Florida. State legislatures are attempting to impose voting restrictions that are the modern day equivalent of poll taxes and literacy tests. Now. let me be clear. The foundation of our participatory democracy. of our democratic society. is rooted in the right to vote. in the right to choose our elected leaders. to have representation in government. to have input on the major policies of the daythe right to have our voices heard. Thats why more than 250 years ago we threw off the shackles of the British Empire that denied American colonists representation in Parliament. The fight toward universal suffrage has been long and arduous. but it is a fight worth fighting. As May Wright Sewall. a leader of the womens suffrage movement in 19th century America. said: Universal suffrage is the only guarantee against despotism. Just as those who came before us have fought to gain and retain the right to vote. we. too. must stand vigilantly against those who seek to limit it. Each time I cast a ballot. I am reminded that it is a right not to be ignored. Less than a century ago. the women who came before us were denied the right to have their voices heard. Women during that time were confronted by a wealth of arguments against our right to suffrage. Women did not want the vote or women were already represented by their husbands orone of my favoritesa womans place is in the house. Well. I would agree with that last statement. if were talking about the House of Representatives. with the note that a womans place is also in the Senate. the Governors office. and in all seats of government. The women who fought for my right to vote were beaten. jailed. ostracized. and tormented. But still. they kept on and persevered because they knew that the women of our great Nation should not be deprived this fundamental right. So. no. we will not stand by and allow anyone s voting rights to be threatened. not on our watch. And many of our colleagues also know this fight too well. Despite the passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments. giving citizens equal protection under the law and the right to vote regardless of their race. African Americans still faced more than a century of overt voter suppression. And while we made huge gains with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. a seminal moment in our Nations history where we declared that truly no election law can deny or abridge voting rights because of race or color. we cannot afford to sit back and just declare the fight over. The struggle for universal suffrage is not over. We cannot allow State legislatures to drag our Nation backwards in what is nothing more than a political quest to protect their governing majoritys interests. A little more than 10 years ago. Florida experienced election day turmoil that reminded us all how important it is to remain on guard against disenfranchisement. The many irregularities that occurred in my home State during the 2000 elections were a painful reminder of how rights can be denied. The Commission on Civil Rights report on the 2000 election in Florida found "widespread voter disenfranchisement." As Commissioner Chairperson Mary Frances Berry stated at the time. "It is not a question of a recount or even an accurate count. but more pointedly the issue is those whose exclusion from the right to vote amounted to a no count." In the last year. scores of States. including Florida. have passed laws restricting access to the polls. A recent Brennan Center report found that these changes in State voting laws will likely suppress the vote of more than 5 million voters nationwide. We need look no further than my own home State of Florida to see the threat against universal suffrage. The Florida law passed last spring restricts both voter registration and voting opportunities. It was championed by Governor Rick Scott and passed by the Republicanled legislature which has overwhelming majorities in both the House and the Senate. First. it restricts the ability of nonpartisan organizations or individuals from helping citizens register to vote. It fines people in groups up to $1.000 per voter if registration isnt turned in within 48 hours. Just the other day. a teacher was sanctioned and is now being prosecuted because she didnt turn in her students voter registrations within the new amended time frame that voter registration cards have to be turned in. And now she is being subjected to a significant fine per vote. As a result of this law. the League of Women Voters. a champion of nonpartisan voting rights for over seven decades. has suspended its voter registration operations in Florida because they cant take the risk to think that they would be bankrupted by this absolutely unfair. terrible law. Second. the Florida law rolls back early voting opportunities. including the Sunday before an election. It eliminates voting on the Sunday before an election. And I can tell you firsthand how important weekend early voting is for the thousands of seniors who live in my district and for millions all across the State. Also in 2008. African Americans and Hispanics. who together make up roughly onequarter of Florida voters. accounted for more than half of all voters on the final Sunday of early voting. So do we think its a coincidence that that group of voters. which voted overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates. now suddenly has their right to vote on that particular Sunday removed from them? As far as we have come in our society in broadening the scope of civil rights. we cannot afford to revert to a time when it was acceptable to limit the rights of a select few. We are not meant to have a government of some people. by some people. for some people. I hope my colleagues will join me in ensuring that we uphold President Abraham Lincolns democratic ideal of government for all the people. elected by all the people. I thank the gentleman from Texas for the opportunity to speak tonight.