Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. NELSON. Madam President, the right to vote is one of the most precious rights we have here in America. How we protect it is so cherished, and it is also cherished by peoples all over the world who don't get a chance to exercise that right. Our constitutional foundation is built on a process of free, fair, and unfettered elections.

Well, what happened in this country 2 years ago put a crack in that foundation, and it started to sow the seeds of doubt that, if gone unchecked, could undermine our entire democracy. After painstaking analyses by the intelligence community, which are in complete agreement--unanimous in the IC--we know that Russia interfered in our 2016 election. We know that Russia continues to meddle in the elections of not only our country now but in other countries around the world. We saw that in the elections in Europe last year. Fortunately, what they tried in France backfired on them, and they didn't get their candidate to win. We also know that if we don't act now, they are likely going to continue this interference in the elections here in this country that are coming up in just a few months.

The threat that we face today from Russia's meddling in our elections and attempting to undermine our democracy is really one of the greatest threats we face. Congress recognizes this threat, and we have taken action to protect that vote. But none of it matters if respective States will not work with us and take this threat seriously.

So last March we passed a bill that authorized $380 million to help State elections officials strengthen their elections security and update their elections equipment. Now, of the total of $380 million for the country, $19 million of it was set aside for my State, the State of Florida. While at least a dozen other States have applied for and received funding to help them protect their systems from Russian intrusion, my State of Florida hasn't even applied for one single dollar of the $19 million set aside for Florida--not one.

In fact, the government of Florida through Florida's secretary of State said recently that it is not planning to apply for any funding to improve security during the upcoming November election. Obviously, when you consider the risk and what Russia did, which the intelligence community all agree was done to us in the last election, why in the world would the State of Florida not apply for any of the $19 million set aside for our State? We know that Russia had intruded into the election mechanism and records of 21 States, and the State of Florida was one of those States.

Although we don't know what kind of interference the Russians are going to try in the upcoming November elections, we do know that Russian President Vladimir Putin--having interfered in 2016 and causing so much chaos and, therefore, attacking the very foundation of our constitutional democracy--is likely to do it again. So why wouldn't the government of the State of Florida apply for $19 million of funds set aside for Florida to upgrade and protect our election system?

We know we are not the only country that has been attacked and, according to the U.S. intelligence community, he obviously is going to continue this type of behavior. So we better get ready.

That is why we have such a heavy responsibility to defend America from these types of attacks and to defend our process of free, fair, and unfettered elections. We need to rebuild trust in our elections, and at the same time we need to ensure that every citizen who wishes to exercise their right to vote is able to do so. It also can be counted, and it can be counted as they intended it to count.

Remember this goes back to 1965. Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to protect the right of every citizen to vote. But in a 5- to-4 Supreme Court decision, it declared that part of that law was outdated, and it removed much needed voter protections that we have come to rely on for minorities, and we have come to rely on them for the last half century.

Part of this Supreme Court decision struck down part of the law as it applied to protecting minorities in certain counties in the State of Florida. The Justices voted to strike down that important part of the Voting Rights Act on a 5-to-4 decision. They said that it was outdated because we no longer have the blatant voter suppression tactics we once did years and decades ago.

I disagree. We have seen a lot of voter suppression. Since the 2010 election, we have seen a number of States, including my State of Florida, approve voting restrictions targeted directly at reducing turnout among young, low-income, and minority voters. Why? Because they traditionally support one particular party.

In 2011, for example, the Florida legislature, State officials, and the Governor of Florida reduced the number of early voting days in Florida, including canceling the Sunday before the Tuesday election as an early-voting date. It is not a coincidence that there was use of early-voting days, particularly on weekends--particularly on that Sunday before the Tuesday election, where people become sensitive and recognize that there is about to be an election day. We have found that particularly minority voters in Florida--African Americans, as well as Hispanics--would take advantage of voting when they did not have to go to work. You have heard the term ``Souls to the Polls.'' So often, after church on Sunday, many church members would go to the polls.

They made voting more difficult for people who had moved to a different county. It became more difficult, even though we have a very mobile population moving within a State. They also made it more difficult for young people, particularly college students, who changed their address because they had moved and wanted to vote in the town where the university was, but their identification often was their driver's license, which showed their parents' residence. Again, this made it more difficult instead of making it easier to vote.

The State of Florida subjected voter registration groups like the League of Women Voters, which had been registering voters for three- quarters of a century--suddenly, they were subjected to penalties and fines if they didn't return the signatures in a short period of time, which was impossible if they got the signatures over a weekend. And they would nitpick with penalties and fines on some small mistake when they were trying to help someone register to vote. Happily, the League of Women Voters went to Federal court, and the Federal judge threw that law out as unconstitutional. But that decision was right before the election, and lo and behold, the League of Women Voters had lost a year and a half of voter registration.

You won't believe this. In 2014, an elections official in Miami- Dade--which was, coincidentally, one of the more Democratic counties in the State--closed restrooms to voters who were waiting in line at the polling sites. As a matter of fact, there was so much chaos in one previous election--the election of 2012--that lines were upward of 7 hours long.

I will never forget the woman who was a century old--100 years. Everybody kept bringing her a chair and bringing her water. Well, some of those waiting in lines didn't have the opportunity to go to the restroom, despite waiting to vote for hours and hours.

In that same election cycle, 2014, the State's top elections official told a local election supervisor not to allow voters to submit absentee ballots at remote drop-off sites, ordering that elections official that there could be only one site. That supervisor of elections, by the way, told the State of Florida to go take a hike--that they had a way of securing the ballots by dropping them in several different sites that were formerly approved.

Then the State of Florida denied a request from the city of Gainesville to use a University of Florida campus building for early voting, a move seen by some as a direct assault on student voting. Can you believe that? The State of Florida government, through the Secretary of the State, is going to order the University of Florida not to allow the student center on campus to be a place of convenience for students to cast an early vote. That order has stood. It has stood, and instead of making it easier for people to vote, it has made it harder. All too often, we have let these things go.

This Senator is not letting it go because the League of Women Voters in Florida has now taken the government of the State of Florida to Federal court on behalf of students at the University of Florida, as well as Florida State, saying: You are arbitrarily saying that we cannot vote in a convenient place on campus, in a government-owned public building on campus. You cannot order that we cannot use that in anticipation of elections this coming November.

Too often we find ourselves divided on these issues of party politics, but that shouldn't be the case. There should be no disagreement when it comes to protecting the right to vote and making it easier, not harder, for people to vote. Why? Because we ought to be Americans first, not partisans first. We should be Americans first, and the State of Florida should get its act in order to let the people vote.

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