Date: 2012-05-07
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

This evening. Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to be anchoring the Congressional Black Caucus hour on voter protection. At the same time that I have the privilege of hosting this very important discussion. let me make note of the fact that our very distinguished Member. Congressman CHARLIE RANGEL. is being toasted and recognized by our Members. I know that many of them will be commemorating Congressman RANGEL. who is a dear friend of mine. He served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and as a Korean War vet. and understands. when soldiers go to battle. they go to battle so that others might have the opportunity for freedom. Certainly embodied in freedom has to be the idea of being able to vote. So this evening. as I discuss these issues. I am delighted to acknowledge him as well as to acknowledge that this is really a bipartisan concernand it should be a bipartisan concern. because. in essence. we should not be at this moment speaking about who you vote for as much as we are speaking about allowing you to vote for the person of your choice and to be able to cast your vote unfettered. Mr. Speaker. that is what my discussion will be about tonight. As I do so. allow me just for a moment to be able to share. if you will. a point that I hope that we all can adhere to. This is going to be a tough election season. There are many actors. if you will. who will be involved in this process. This is a Presidential year. so its going to get particularly feisty. But I do believe that there is a certain collegiality and collaboration as it circles around voting and the idea of voting and of voting with equal opportunity. Even in our words. we need to try and make sure that were lifting the voters up. I heard a comment from someone introducing the intended Republican nomineethough it was tongue in cheek with a little humorwho indicated in his remarks very loudly. "Osama is dead." And in the midst of it. he indicated. "I mean Osama bin Laden." I assume he was trying to make a play on words. but I really hope that we can stay above the line of decency as we recognize that we live in difficult times. As a member of the Homeland Security Committee. we just heard publicly about a particular effort to attack our aviation assets. which was just announced today as breaking news. and we realize that we live in challenging times. For that reason. I think this discussion on voter protection is extremely important. So let me just say to my friends that until now. historically. the voting franchise has only been expanded. This is most evident in the constitutional amendments that have been passed to protect and expand the right to vote. And since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. it really has been a bipartisan congressional prerogative to ensure access to the ballot. President Lyndon Baines Johnson. one of the Presidents who has been touted as having the greatest legislative record. had to cobble together Republicans and Democrats from the Deep Souththen called the Dixiecratsand moderate Republicans from the North and Midwest. He successfully passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and successfully passed the 1965 Voting Rights Act. It was a bipartisan effort. And I might say that many Members who have reflected to have had a chance to encountersome are still in this House. I remember. most famously. Jack Brooks. after it was all said and done. felt that they had done the right thing. Today I was at a middle school. and I indicated to them that I would be on the floor of the House discussing voter protection. I was inspired by those young people. middle schoolers. who were attentive to learn what their government did. As I left. telling them not how to vote but that they must vote. there was a great excitement in the room. Im on this floor today for them and all middle schoolers. high schoolers. college students. senior citizens. new immigrants who have taken the oath with great pride. longtime voters. new voters. Those are voters who have the right to vote. Thats what were talking about. Unfortunately. a series of laws do not go after those who did not have the right to vote. but these series of voter ID laws and new rules and regulations to stop people from voting goes after documented. legal voters with legal voting certificates who have done nothing wrong. Shame on those who would do so. I just read. recently. that the lead person opposing the voter ID law in Pennsylvania. if I am correctits my recollection nowwould be 93 years old. Thats who were hurting: senior citizens. people who have toiled and worked and paid their taxes. paid into Medicare. And now. because of when they were born. such as my mother Ivalita Jackson. they do not have a birth certificate. We tried. we looked. and we still have an inquiry in. God bless her. My mother has since passed while we were in the midst of looking for the certificate for a number of reasons. but she had her voting card and she was eligible to vote. But under new voting ID laws. she would not be eligible to vote. And here is a woman who raised her children. paid her taxes. selfeducated herself. achieved a status of a vocational nurse in times when education was not gifted to her. A recent report by the Brennan Center for Justice of NYU Law School concluded that the newly enacted State laws that would affect more than 5 million eligible voters will disproportionately disenfranchise young. lowincome. elderly. and minority voters. In 2006. the Brennan Center completed a nationwide survey of votingage citizens and found that African American voters are more than three times as likely as Caucasians to lack a governmentissued ID. The real nonsense of it all is that voter IDs are to avoid voter impersonation. and voter impersonation is a finite part of any kind of voter fraud. In fact. under the Bush administration. there was less than 20. if you will. that were prosecuted. Were talking about a country of 300 million. And this is by recollection: I think there were some 180 cases that were brought forward. and they only wound up prosecuting a finite number. The heavy burden on minority voters seems patently unfair. and it seems to be a direct result of the great enthusiasm of all voters in 2008. I want to see that all the time. Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Isnt it interesting. when the wave of Tea Party voters had such an impact in 2010 and many of them were new voters. I didnt fare well in that. meaning my partys particular position. but it was the American way. All of the sudden. even with these new voters and the will of the people being adhered to. all of the sudden these new laws come out of the very people who are new to the voting processmany of themand were excited about voting in 2010. Now comes a sledgehammer to prevent others from voting. In Texas. thanks to new voter ID. students may not use their schoolissued IDs to vote. which is part of an effort to restrict student IDs as a valid form of identification to vote. This is the same State that will allow Texans with a concealed weapons permit to use their permits to vote. but a student who is trying to get an education. who has a Stateissued ID card is not afforded the same privilege to use their student IDs. Mind you. the Prairie View A&M case established a Supreme Court case that students could vote where they go to school. I remember that because we marched some 7plus miles down an interstate to Prairie View A&M. thousands of us. to determine that students have a right at Prairie View A&M. that set a historical Supreme Court decision. By the way. this was not. in essence. a liberal court. This decision was made under the Bush administration that determined that students can vote. and now the State of Texas is suggesting that they cant use their ID. Shame on them. Frankly. this seems out of whack. A student should be able to use their ID to vote. Eleven percent of U.S. citizens. or more than 21 million Americans. do not have governmentissued photo identification. Also. as many as 25 percent of all African American citizens of voting age do not have governmentissued IDs. Mandating voter IDs has a disproportionate and unfair impact on lowincome individuals and racial and ethnic minorities. This also has a heavy burden on Hispanic voters in Texas. We found out that many Hispanic voters live in counties where there is no Department of Public Safety office for them to even go to. Mr. Speaker. do we get an airplane. a helicopter? What do we tell individuals who have toiled. who have worked and are second- and thirdgeneration Texans that just because of their aging status. maybe because of health reasons. they cannot get a voter ID? Senior citizens. voters with disabilities. and many other individuals do not have governmentissued ID or the money to even acquire one. Yes. under Texas law they can vote by mail. but I tell you. getting information to people is very hard. If youre used to going and voting on a Sunday. if youre used to being taken when your family members have the time to take youwhich is weekend votingand youre used to taking your voter certificate and now the new law says no. what an outrage. But I have relief. As it relates to Texas. I have just spoken to the Justice Department and have been reissued a letter that indicates that the Texas voter ID law is invalid as it relates to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. a cause for celebration. Our primary will be May 29. That law will be invalid for both the primary and the runoff. Ive asked the State of Texas to not hide that information and to come out with a clear enunciationnot a negative announcementthat says that the Justice Department has stopped the Texas voter ID law. That doesnt help anybody understand anything. Your duty is to be impartial as a State election officer. and you are to come out and say that the current law standsnot the voter ID law that is invalid under the Voting Rights Actuntil a further court determination can be made. which is not until the July 2012 court hearing. It is important for us to work together. as State officials. to let everyone know your voting certificate is an appropriate document to allow you to vote. That is what government is supposed to do. give fair and impartial information no matter where it falls. And I look forward to working with our State government to ensure that impartial information is now promoted to all people. everyone. Your voting certificate is a legitimate document. And if you do not have a Stateissued voter ID. you can vote in your primary. whether it is Republican. Democratic. or any other primary that is viable in the State of Texas. Why is that so difficult to do? More than 21 million Americans do not have governmentissued photo identification. which includes. again. 25 percent of African American voting age citizens. or more than 5.5 million people. 15 percent of those earning less than $35.000 a year. 18 percent of those age 65 and aboveand more than 6 million voters. 20 percent of young voters ages 18 to 29. and it is much higher in the Hispanic community. The photo ID proposals are not new. with calls for strict voter identification laws emerging out of the 2000 Presidential election. when conservative watchdog groups contended that laws intending to facilitate voting. such as the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. known as "Motor Voter." had opened the doors to illegal voting. Thats impossible. Mr. Speaker. It didnt look like the folks who thought that they were losing suffered too much in the 2000 Presidential election. The candidate of their choice was elected and ascended to the presidency. I cant imagine why they would feel that they had been violated by the 1993 Motor Voter law. which means that you could just register to vote at your various sites around the community. including the motor vehicle department. The Justice Department. under Attorney General Ashcroft. pledged that cracking down on socalled voter fraud would be a top priority of the Bush administration Justice Department. though ultimately. the Departments own extensive analysis found little evidence of voting improprieties. Congress passed the Help America Vote Act in 2002. establishing uniform minimum voter identification requirements. prompting calls that States should go further. Mr. Speaker. this is for everybody. I cant stop or investigate who is coming to the polls and suggest that if you are this party or that party. stay away. Why wouldnt we want to help everyone? Since 2001. more than 700 voter identification bills have been introduced in 46 States. according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. A dozen States have passed new voter ID laws since 2003. but only eight States require a photo ID of voters. and only two have laws as strict as those being proposed this year. That was before. Now we have. in essence. a new day. We have some tough laws that are hurting voters. Were talking about voter protection. but we have to overcome voter suppression. If you look at this map. you will see that we are being overwhelmed by voter photo ID requirements. I would say almost twothirds of the States have inappropriately and incorrectly believed that they are going to make voting far more secure. Let me tell you what an ID does: It stops you from impersonating another person. That has been the lowest level of voter fraud because you are silly to impersonate because you are going into a place that might subject you to an arrest. In the State of Texas. precinct judges have the status of a district judge on election day. This map will show you how bad it is. Look at the red. It requires voter ID. Big Texas: thats why I need the State to announce that the voter ID law is invalid for the May 29 primary. because it looks as if we have a requirement that does not exist for this primary. Someone hear me. We are obligated to tell the 21 millionplus Texans that they have the right to vote with a voting certificate if they are registered to vote for the May 29 primary. That red is getting pretty strong. Blue. photo ID requested. The red is require photo ID only. nothing else. How absurd. In essence. were taking a match and burning the voting certificates that people worked so hard to get. that allow people to votethat you tell people to register again. It also disallows organizations like the League of Women Voters and puts a very heavy hand on what happens when you register people to vote and how you have to get those registrations in. The big "stop" sign. Thats why its red. Its the "stop people from voting" law. Then look at the photo ID requested. blue States. Then look at the photo voter ID legislation proposed. It covers 90 percent of America. How absurd. And I would be open to finding a way to ensure that that diminished. limited amount of fraud is taken care of. But this is what it does: It puts up a red stop sign. It stops people from voting. It frightens people from voting. It keeps people from voting. And then. of course. this is another big. fat. red map which shows the States where voting changes were pursued and the types of changes enacted. Ill show it in a moment. It includes legislation introduced. Big red photo ID requirementspassed. Proof of citizenshippassed. Restrictions on voter registrationpassed. Restrictions on early absentee votingpassed. Executive action. making it harder to restore voting rights. You can see the country is predominantly red with a big "stop" sign. stopping people from voting. I beg of you. why would we. who have the privilege of having a document that gave citizens due process. gave us the freedoms of speech. petition. assembly. all having to do with petitioning your government. and then we have a movement that literally stops us in our tracks. Then we have Citizens United that dumps money into elections and literally skews who gets to be selected by the people. I want everyone to see how much we need to overcome voter suppression by. in essence. protecting everyones right to vote. I want to be very clear on this: Everyones right to vote. A dozen States have passed. as I have said. new voter ID laws since 2003. But voter ID proposals have a forceful momentum this year not seen in years passedthis year. meaning 2012. 2011. and going back to 2010. This is part of a broader legislative movement to limit access to the political process for disenfranchised groups at a level not seen since postReconstruction Era laws implementing poll taxes and literacy tests. Now we have to know that there are those of us who come from States where the literacy tests and poll tax have not gone away even for 60 years. meaning that we have not even had that relief for 60 years. There were lawsuits in the 1940s that ultimately generated an opportunity for constituents not to pay a poll tax. I remember the late Beulah Shepard. who came to Texas. If there ever was a person that talked about voting. it was sister Beulah Shepard out of Acres Homes. She always used to recite a poem about just one vote. and she gave a whole list of what one vote. one person could do. She proudly talked about the fact that she paid a poll tax to vote. And she paid a poll tax. I think she said. for her husband and others who needed to vote. That wasnt too long in Americas history and future. Mr. Speaker. What a shameful turn of events that now the late Beulah Shepard is no longer here. and how shed be crying. turning over in her resting place. to realize that all the toiling that she did to register people to vote. to empower those who had been disenfranchised. now could not vote. Susan B. Anthony and the Suffragettes. Sojourner Truth. who suffered because women could not vote. They were not landowners. And they tried and worked and toiled and were ridiculed. and finally women could vote. And to find now some elderly woman who does not have her voter photo IDand I say this. Let the listening public hear. You cannot get a voter ID if you dont bring something like a birth certificate. And this is where our seniors either cant get there or theyre too elderly to have access to their birth certificate. Maybe they were. in essence. brought into this world by a volunteer or midwife or family members. Theres no birth certificate. Maybe its in the deep country in the dark of night. where mom and baby did not get recognition until days or weeks afterward. Or. living as long as they lived. the birth certificate has been lost. Mr. Speaker. Ive heard of veterans whose documents were burned up in a fire. They were still veterans. They still served their country. We see them every day. And so here we have a situation where youre disenfranchising groups at a level not seen. as I said. since postReconstruction era laws implementing a poll tax and a literacy test. Just over the first 2 months of 2011. photo ID proposals have been introduced in 32 States and passed out of one legislative chamber in 12 States. Lawmakers across the Nation have pinpointed photo ID as a top legislative priority. The Governor of Texas designated photo ID as a legislative emergency in order to allow it to be procedurally fasttracked to the legislature. Photo ID proposals were prefiled before legislative sessions began in half a dozen States. And secretaries of State in a number of States have listed photo ID as a top priority. Let me thank Chairman EMANUEL CLEAVER for leading out not only members of the Congressional Black Caucus but collaborating with other organizations. and let me thank my colleagues who have worked so hard on this issue. Let me thank Congresswoman DONNA CHRISTENSEN. who is detained at a matter that she had to attend. whos been anchoring these hourlong discussions with the American public. But we better beware. because what you do to others comes back to you. The idea of limiting a persons access to voting and being able to vote on the cause of how you think they will vote and how you dont want those people to vote comes back to Americans who want to vote in whichever way they do. Stop me from voting. you get stopped from voting. The idea of a photo ID is not a respecter of race. And if youre elderly and cant get to the Department of Public Safety office or in another State you cant get somewhere. if youre inhibited or prohibited. it is an impact on you no matter what background you come from. Thank God for the Congressional Black Caucus that is a respecter of the rights of all people. We are fighting for our children. Were fighting for young people. the elderly. the disabled. And no matter who you are. if youre blocked to vote because of the voter ID. this is voter suppressionand we want to have voter protection. The Governor of Texas designated photo ID as a legislative emergency in order to allow it to be procedurally fasttracked through the legislature. Photo ID proposals were prefiled before legislative sessions began in half a dozen States. I dont know why that happened. Were bogged down with the redistricting case. The secretaries of State in a number of States have listed photo ID as a top priority. Mr. Speaker. it does nothing. The Bush administration showed they couldnt find any fraud worth prosecuting for people who were impersonating a voter. Photo ID proposals have garnered significant momentum in a very mistaken matterthat its going to do something. It is not. Let us point out voter fraud. Let us. in essence. carve it out. But you are not going anywhere with voter ID laws who discriminate against the elderly. who discriminate against minorities. who discriminate against those individuals who have lived long enough and served their country long enough that they just might not remember where their birth certificate isor even their marriage certificate. Significant momentum is going on this. and it is wrongheaded. Opponents are having difficulty waging effective counterattacks to curb the movement on these bills as majority leaderships. emboldened by their increased numbers following in the 2010 midterm elections. are more committed than they ever have been. Let me congratulate the State of Ohio and Congresswoman MARCIA FUDGE. where the people of that State defeated that draconian law and they will not have the burden of their voter ID law in the 2012 Presidential election. Yay for them. A battleground State where the people can vote as they choose. And were going to all realize that Ohioans will not be encumbered by draconian laws. They will battle it out in the democratic process and they will vote. and no one can block them from voting. In 1890. the State of Mississippi. although African Americans made up 58 percent of the population. due to the structure of voting laws that year in Mississippi. of the 134 elected delegates. only one was African American. and that was during Reconstruction. It does not take a genius to recognize that the African American vote was diluted. We cannot allow history to repeat itself. That is why we have the Voting Rights Act and why we are ever vigilant to guard against any encroachments on the right to vote. And so my argument is. today. that were going to go across Americaand I appreciate my colleagues who have joined in this effort to go across Americaand were going to introduce voting protection seminars to ensure that every voterminority voters and elderly votershas a right to vote. Mr. Speaker. Im very glad to have spoken to my State officials today. I will place this letter to Texas State officials in the RECORD.