Providing for Consideration of H.R. 4844, Federal Election Integrity Act of 2006
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 4844, FEDERAL ELECTION INTEGRITY ACT OF 2006 -- (House of Representatives - September 20, 2006)
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Mrs. MILLER of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, certainly the fundamental building block of our democracy for the last 208 years has been a constitutionally guaranteed right to vote. Prior to my service in Congress here, I had the great honor and privilege to serve as my State of Michigan's chief election officer and the secretary of State.
In that role I viewed it as my duty to ensure the integrity of our elections process, to ensure that every eligible voter had an opportunity to vote, to ensure that every registered voter would turn out on election day, and to root out any fraud, any type of fraud in our elections process, and to ensure that every vote that was cast was properly counted.
I would like to think that I do have a deep understanding and certainly a respect for our Nation's electoral process, and not from a partisan tint. In fact, after the 2000 elections, the NAACP gave my administration the Nation's highest grade of any of the secretaries of State in the entire Nation for election reform.
Mr. Speaker, since the 2000 election, this Congress has also taken action to improve the process through the Help America Vote Act, that they authorized and appropriated millions and millions and millions of dollars for, which has improved the quality of our voting equipment and improved the registration voter list throughout the Nation.
Now, today, we have another positive electoral initiative that will help ensure the integrity of our process. H.R. 4844, the Federal Election Integrity Act, will require voters in Federal elections to show a photo ID to prove their identity and to be sure that their vote is counted.
I know that we are hearing concerns from the other side that for very partisan political reasons that this is going to disenfranchise voters, but nothing could be further from the truth. This important reform will ensure that every voter who presents himself at the poll, is who they say they are, and will limit diluting the votes of lawful voters by rooting out fraud.
Mr. Speaker, the call for photo identification at the polling places is not simply coming from Republicans. In fact, in my home State of Michigan, during the 2005 Detroit mayoral race, we heard calls there from both candidates, both camps about electoral improprieties that were happening in the city of Detroit. Both of the candidates engaged in that process and in that election were Democrats.
In fact, Freeman Hendrix, who lost that close race, actually came out after the election with a litany of things that we needed to do in the State of Michigan for election reform and paramount, a priority amongst them from him, was that we needed to have photo identification.
In addition, as has been mentioned on the floor already, the bipartisan Carter-Baker Commission, that is Jimmy Carter, former President Jimmy Carter, the Carter-Baker Commission on Electoral Reform recommended that we require photo ID at the polling places, again to ensure the integrity of our electoral process. I don't think there is anybody in the Nation that would accuse former President Jimmy Carter of being a Republican or a partisan Republican. We need to enact the photo identification requirement.
Another problem is that from some estimates, we have as many as 12 million illegal aliens in our Nation. Many of my constituents are concerned that votes of our citizens are being diluted by noncitizens illegally participating in the electoral process. This legislation actually builds on the REAL ID Act, which ensures that no States issue either driver's licenses or State identification cards to illegal aliens, and it assures the validity of the documents which establish the identity and the citizenship of the individuals.
This legislation will be yet another safeguard to ensure that those who are in our country illegally, or who are not citizens, do not participate in our electoral process. It also ensures that citizens who do not now have a government-issued photo ID, or cannot afford one, will have access to free, literally free, identification.
So there are a lot of reasons as to why people don't vote. Perhaps they think, they are very apathetic, they don't like the negative campaigning, or they don't like their choices of candidate, or they might think that there is too much fraud in the system and that their vote will not count, for whatever reason.
I truly believe that enhancing the integrity of the process will be an impetus to show people that their vote does count, that it is going to be counted, that it is going to be counted properly. In fact, this bill has the potential to actually increase voter participation.
Mr. Speaker, this is commonsense reform that will make our democracy stronger. I urge my colleagues to support the rule and the underlying legislation.
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