Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, we are considering today the nomination of James ``Randy'' Evans to be Ambassador to Luxembourg. I opposed Mr. Evans' nomination in committee, and I will again oppose his confirmation on the floor.

My concerns with Mr. Evans center around his tenure on the Georgia State Election Board from 2002 to 2010. In March of 2005, Georgia passed a controversial new law requiring voters to show a photo ID in order to cast a vote.

Despite the fact that both Federal and State judges prohibited the law from going into effect, the Election Board made a decision in 2006 to send a letter to 200,000 voters with the false impression that the law would be in effect for the upcoming election. Appropriately, this action caused an uproar, and multiple voices accused the Board of defying the injunction in a deliberate attempt to mislead voters and possibly suppress minority turnout. The board subsequently mailed out a clarification letter, but the damage had already been done.

During his confirmation process, Mr. Evans unfortunately presented conflicting accounts of his involvement in this effort to suppress voter turnout. He first said he could not remember the details of how the letter was sent or who wrote it. However, other board members who served during that time period, as well as summaries of election board meeting minutes from 2006, clearly reflect that Mr. Evans and the board as a whole appeared to play a central role in drafting and distributing the letters.

These conflicting accounts trouble me. The right to express one's vote at the ballot box is fundamental to our democracy. Throughout our Nation's history, various actors have sought to systematically deny different groups of people this core right.

Those representing the United States abroad must embody and embrace our fundamental democratic values and ideals. I am not convinced that Mr. Evans will do that. One cannot be advocating for democracy and human rights and suppressing votes here at home. I do not think he has demonstrated the judgment I would expect from our Ambassadors, and for this reason I will urge my colleagues to reject sending Mr. Evans to Luxembourg as the U.S. Ambassador.

Because my colleagues are here on the floor, although I have time reserved to speak on North Korea, I will yield, because I think they have an important action to take place.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source