Americans Need the Right to Vote

AMERICANS NEED THE RIGHT TO VOTE -- (House of Representatives - September 15, 2004)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Jackson) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.

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Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. I thank the distinguished gentleman for his kind introduction and I appreciate very much the leadership that he has shown on these issues. I join with him in standing with the Congressional Black Caucus on these very vital issues, but I believe it is enormously important that we pronounce not only to the Nation but even to the world that the question of the Constitution and the importance of one person, one vote in America has no color.

I am reminded of the early signs before the civil rights movement and the opening of accommodations in America, we would see the signs colored here, colored restroom, colored drinking fountain, colored entrance. It seems as if whenever we begin to talk about civil rights, for some reason there are those who wish to put a color sign, one that establishes civil rights as belonging only to one community. The idea of voting in America should clearly be that of every single citizen. I hope that as America focuses attention on the November 2 election, listening to polls go up and down, splintering by the finest of point the remarks of each presidential candidate, I hope they will understand that the only analysis that ever counts will be their vote on November 2, 2004.

And so we are standing today, and I am standing today because I believe that we will need to have an ignited electorate, a voting public that is both incensed about the depredation of their votes or the depriving of the right to vote but as well an incensed electorate to be energized about protecting their right to vote.

Might I just cite for those who are listening the numbers of issues that are so very important in our community around voter rights. After the 2000 election that saw a great disappointment across America, 500,000 individuals voted in the majority for a candidate that did not ultimately become President of the United States. When I visited Florida, I did not speak only to Florida A&M students who were denied their right to vote or individuals who happened to be African-American males who were told that they were convicted felons and denied their right to vote but I spoke to senior citizens in West Palm Beach who happened to be white Floridians who indicated their frustration with the voting ballot and the inability to ask questions at the voting booth and their frustration with having been forced inappropriately because of the faulty ballot in voting for someone they did not desire to vote for. Or how about talking to the disabled persons that I met who were shedding tears because they could not access the particular polling place because it was closed off to them.

Voting has no color. There is in fact no sign at the voting booth that should say colored here or white here. But yet in Florida in 2000 and in Illinois and in other places, there were many, many people who were denied the right to vote. Of course the Voting Rights Act of 1965 clearly enunciated principles that dealt with African Americans. It was a result of the civil rights movement, a movement of Dr. King and A. Phillip Randolph, Hosea Williams and Julian Bond and John Lewis and many others who fought and came together around the empowerment of voting for African Americans who had heretofore been denied, who could not even pay poll tax and get to vote. So many of us have parents who were intimidated away from the voting booth.

So we came to 2001, and some of us took advantage on January 6, 2001, to be able to stand up and reject the tally in the State of Florida. But even that could not turn back what had happened in November of 2000 and that is why we stand here today arguing for what we believe is the most crucial aspect of your empowerment, and that is the right to vote. We want every senior citizen to be able to vote. We want every student to be able to vote. We want every legal status citizen to have the right to vote. Every military personnel to have the right to vote. Every overseas American to have the right to vote and their vote to be counted.

But, Mr. Speaker, in doing that, let me make it perfectly clear, I want their rights to be counted and their right to vote to be filled with legalities as opposed to illegalities.

Let me raise for my colleagues some of the concerns we have as it relates to voter intimidation.

It has been noted by People for the American Way a number of a series of intimidation. We know how we were intimidated in years passed. I worked for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and I worked in registering individuals to vote in North Carolina and South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama. It was interesting to go on those plantations where sharecroppers still lived and to see the voting place where they had to go. Some of my colleagues may be reminded of this. It was a tattered building with a tattered sheet covering where one would vote, and the overseer stood by while sharecroppers voted.

That was intimidation. And, in fact, in places where I went, an overseer stood by with a rifle on his lap as those who wanted to vote tried to walk past him. That is intimidation. And we must come away from that, come through the life that Fannie Lou Hamer led on her plantation in Mississippi where she was intimidated for even trying to participate in the Mississippi Democratic Party and in the Democratic National Convention.

So intimidation we know, and we stand today to argue against that. And some of that intimidation still continues: challenges and threats against individual voters at the polls by armed private guards; off-duty law enforcement officers; local creditors; fake poll monitors and poll workers and monitors; signs posted at polling places warning of penalties for voter fraud and noncitizen voting or illegally urging support for a candidate; poll workers assisting voters in filling out their ballots and instructing them how to vote; criminal tampering with voter registration rolls and records; fliers and radio ads containing false information about where, when, and how to vote; voter eligibility and false threat of penalty; setting up roadblocks near polling areas to intimidate voters; internal memos from party officials in which the explicit goal of expressing African American voter turnout is outlined; in 1982 in the State of Texas, having individuals in all polls in the African American community, standing and intimidating voters, intimidating the precinct judges, asking them whether they were allowing voters to come in without their identification.

This is voter intimidation, and this is what we have to cease and desist; and I would argue vigorously that, in doing so, we need to use existing laws of the land. We need to also make note that many of our cities, counties, and voting jurisdictions have utilized the electronic voting.

And so I will be offering a resolution to offer to this House that we demand that wherever it is possible that individual jurisdiction be required, be encouraged, be asked to include a paper trail. In the Federal legislation that we passed in this Congress in the last session, we were not able to get into that legislation a system of paper balloting. And so we are finding out in a very frightening way that electronic voting systems can be tampered with. We in Harris County requested our county clerk to include a paper trail. That county clerk refused, and we are contemplating a lawsuit. And I would encourage jurisdictions around the country, it is not too late to go in and seek injunctive relief even to require their jurisdiction, some of them wealthy enough to be able to implement it at this time, to put in the paper trail necessary to protect the vote.

Might I bring to the attention of my colleagues that, even though I started out by saying that I hope that we will ensure that the votes are taken and counted of all Americans, those overseas, those in the United States military, that none of their rights be denied, that no Secretary of State like the Secretary of State in the State of Florida in 2000 be able to close off the lights and close the door and the curtains on the various counties that were counting votes on that fateful Sunday when we heard from the Secretary of State of Florida who said, We will not take any more of the recounted votes; your time is up, and those votes will not be counted. We hope we will hear none of that anymore.

But let me remind my colleagues that we still have to perform oversight. My understanding is that the Pentagon is asking that the votes of the United States military not be sent to the various election polling places or the places where they belong, but they are being asked to be sent to the Pentagon. I do not know, Mr. Speaker, whether the Pentagon has ever cited itself as a duly counted electoral system where they have the oversight and the checks and balances to be able to open the thousands upon thousands of ballots coming in from enlisted personnel, National Guard and Reservists, sergeants, and others that might be intimidated by having to send their ballots to the Pentagon.

If the chairman would please stand just for a moment. And I see the distinguished gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Watt) on the floor, and I know that he will be joining us, but I just want to be able to conclude on a final point. But with our great respect for the United States military, I know that we honor Shoshana Johnson and we have military now in respective communities, our respect for them on the front lines of Afghanistan and Iraq; but I would ask the chairman that we come together around a resolution, one, but also a letter inquiring about the process on behalf of our constituents who will be voting and sending their ballots, will they give us a precise process of how these ballots will be going to the Pentagon and ask for a reordering of that order such that those ballots can go somewhere else.

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Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, I thank the chairman very much for his response.

Just in closing, it is interesting. This is the most powerful country in the world and the country that has the greatest technology. Would one not think that we would have the kind of precise technology, because these are absentee ballots, that could ZIP code these military personnel and send them back to their jurisdictions without tampering with and not going by way of the Pentagon? I think that would be certainly an appropriate manner of handling those particular ballots.

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, one of the things that I think we have to keep in mind is a lot of people listen to this discussion and say it seems like these Members of Congress are not trusting the military. It is not about trusting. It is a thing of integrity of a system. One of the things that I think people want to know is that their ballot and the ballot of their sons and daughters and friends and neighbors are, in fact, being counted properly and being sent to the appropriate places so that we can maintain that integrity. And we do not even want the appearance of any kind of improper procedures.

One thing is for sure. When we talk about a democracy, we also talk about people's confidence in that democracy. As I am sure the gentlewoman has seen and heard, there were some people who were so discouraged by the 2000 election, they began to question why they should vote. And, of course, we have a ready answer to that. But the fact is we want everybody to know that their vote will be properly counted and that they will have the opportunity to vote. So I think people need to take all of that into consideration because I think it is very important.

Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, I agree with the gentleman, and I think the idea of this Special Order is to put forward one term, and that is "preparedness." We want not only the people of America to be prepared to vote, but we want the governmental entities and those of us who have responsibility and have respect for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the integrity of the voting process to be prepared.

So my final words are these: One, I think that we should collaborate around this issue of dealing with the paper trail. I know that we will be studying the issue in Texas, and it may warrant litigation in terms of insisting that our particular county look into and pursue establishing a paper trail. My understanding is that constituents around the Nation are particularly frightened by the fact that their votes can be tampered with.

The second thing is for every poll where someone else has a poll watcher, we need to make sure that we have one. I say to all of the voters who may be going to vote to be prepared with every documentation that they need and be aware of the fact that they have a right to attest their authority, they are called many different names, but an affidavit that they can do so. Be prepared that they can attest the fact that they have the right to vote.

And, lastly, I would say do not leave a voting place. I am not asking people to get arrested en mass. But let me say this: Voting is important. If one feels civil disobedience warrants persisting in staying at the poll, they have the right to be able to get all the information that they need before they are taken away or shunned away from the poll. I say to them to wait on someone to come to them. There will be legal teams all over this country who will be assisting them, but to wait before being turned away so that they can get the right information or call back or come back.

This will not be a repeat of 2000. And it will not be that because we are going to be prepared and we are going to utilize every aspect of the Constitution, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and local jurisdictional law, including the elections legislation that we passed, to make sure that every vote is counted. And I hope, as we move toward November, we will find ourselves prepared.

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I was thinking as she talked about the Voting Rights Act of 1965, in a way it is a kind of sad thing that we are even standing here talking about this, talking about guaranteeing the right to vote and to have a vote counted here in 2004. But we do and we have to stand up. Every second January, come January, we put up our right hand and we swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States, and part of that Constitution is our right to vote.

So I am very pleased that the gentleman from North Carolina has joined us. The next chairman of our Congressional Black Caucus, who is, without a doubt, one who has consistently looked at our Constitution very carefully, as the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) has. And whenever there was what might appear as a violation of that Constitution, they have consistently raised that on the floor of this great House. And I think history will go down and it will be written, and maybe hundreds of years from now somebody may just be flipping through some pages and hear about members of the Congressional Black Caucus, particularly those in the Committee on the Judiciary, standing up for what they believe in.

Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. CUMMINGS. I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas.

Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I want to add my appreciation. I appreciate the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings) mentioning our service on the Committee on the Judiciary. Just to add that we spent some time in the Committee on the Judiciary this morning with, again, legislation that did eliminate opportunity to enter into the courthouse on questions of grievance regarding in this instance the Pledge of Allegiance.

But I think the important point is that we stand here today talking about voter rights when we have legislative initiatives by this body, and I think our colleagues need to hear this, that are slamming the door shut. So for all we know, Mr. Speaker, we may talk about going into the courthouse on the Voting Rights Act or going into the courthouse on electronic voting, and before we know it, we may have legislation saying no one is allowed to pursue Federal court jurisdiction or appellate court jurisdiction on issues dealing with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. I just thought I would share that, as the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Watt) was coming to the microphone, to let everyone know how serious we are today. I thank the gentleman for his leadership.

I rise today to address an issue that I and members of the Congressional Black Caucus have worked tirelessly for, the issue of voters rights. The issue of voters rights is one that is central to our democratic government based on the Constitution and it is an issue that will be fundamental in this year's Presidential election.

The importance of each American's vote can not be understated; it was former President Lyndon Johnson who said: "The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men." Voters rights are guaranteed to every American, but clearly voters rights have been more dubious for minority voters, especially those in the African American community.

The Fourteenth Amendment states that all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. The citizens of Florida were denied equal protection from faulty voting equipment, misinformed or unschooled Election Day poll workers and confusing ballots. They were denied equal protection from unreliable vote tabulation methods that were not able to discern voter intent. They were denied an opportunity, tested and approved by time to use manual hand counts to determine the intent of a voter to vote and for which, if any, candidate they desired to vote for.

Disparate treatment of voters in our Nation is inherent in the arcane and disjointed method of local, State, and national elections. The condition of the Florida election was the fruit of this disparity in that the variations in the methods of voting lead to different methods of tallying votes and different success or failure rates in the accuracy of those tallies. The more modern pencil mark to fill an oval on a paper ballot that is fed into a computer to tally votes was found to only hold a 3 percent error rate while the punch card method of tallying votes had a 15 percent error rate.

Congress passed the voting Rights Act of 1965 in response to widespread evidence of disenfranchisement of black citizens in several southern States, of which Florida is numbered. This act was designed to protect citizens' right to vote primarily by forbidding these States from using tests of any kind to determine eligibility to vote, by requiring these States to obtain Federal approval before enacting any election laws, and by assigning Federal officials to monitor the registration process in certain localities.

It is clear that the injured party in the 2000 elections was the voters of Florida who had to suffer through the biased actions of a Secretary of State who acted as the Co-State Chair for the Bush for President effort in the State of Florida. The voters struggled to be heard in the face of repeated challenges and disruptions designed to end an order process of discerning voter intent when the machine failed in that determination. A constitution is the property of a nation, and not of those who exercise the government.

The United States Declaration of Independence states, "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness-That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." The Declaration of Independence continues with, "..... when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Objective, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security.

This passage of the Declaration of Independence adequately describes the plight of minority and poor Americans in their struggle for an equal voice in the governance of our Nation's democracy.

African American voters were there on Election Day, but soon after the election was over we knew that something had happened to stop our vote from being counted with its full effect.

In the 19th Century following the Civil War, the Congress passed 2 amendments to the Constitution; the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments in order to guarantee the equal rights of African Americans and grant voting rights to black men. Following the enactment of these two amendments 22 African Americans served in the Congress and over 700 served in Southern State legislatures, with some States being nominally under black control. Unfortunately by 1902 whites found enough ways to prevent the intent of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments from being followed that the number of African American elected officials dwindled to zero. It took over 70 years for the voting rights of African Americans to be restored to a level where the election of African Americans to Federal offices was to some degree assured from disruption due to the institutional blockade of African American citizens voting rights.

The battle over at-large elections which effectively diluted black votes was not overcome until 1973, when the Supreme Court ruled in White v. Register that at-large elections schemes were unconstitutional, if such schemes diluted minority voting strength which they did in most cases. While we were victorious in that battle, the challenges to obtaining true voting rights have been evident till this day and we must fix what is a flawed and prejudicial system.

The 2000 presidential election revealed a plethora of barriers to voting. In NAACP hearings on voting irregularities we heard testimony from law enforcement, poll workers, educators, civil rights organizations, state and federal legislators, and disenfranchised voters recounting the following:

1. That citizens who were properly registered were denied the right to vote because election officials could not find their names on the precinct rolls;

2. That registered voters were denied the right to vote because of minor discrepancies and clerical errors;

3. That first-time voters who sent in voter registration forms prior to the state's deadline for registration were denied the right to vote because their registration forms were not processed;

4. That African American voters were singled out for criminal background checks at some precincts and that one voter who had never been arrested was denied the right to vote after being told that he had a prior felony conviction;

5. That African American voters were required to show photo identification while white voters at the same precincts were not subjected to the same requirement;

6. That voters who requested absentee ballots did not receive them but were denied the right to vote when they went to the precinct in person on Election Day;

7. That hundreds of absentee ballots of registered voters in various counties throughout the nation were improperly rejected by the Supervisor of Elections and not counted;

8. That African American voters who requested assistance at the polls were denied assistance;

9. That African American voters who requested the assistance of a volunteer to translate the ballot for limited proficient voters were denied such assistance.

There allegations raise potential violations of Sections 2 and 5 of the Voter Rights Act of 1965, 42 U.S.C. sec. 1973, as well as several provisions of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, 42 U.S.C. sec. 1973gg-5(a) which affirms the right of every U.S. citizen to case a ballot and have that ballot be counted must be protected without compromise and without regard to the voter's race. This was truly a time in which justice delayed was justice denied. In addition to the number of allegations of voting irregularities that occurred in the State of Florida, it was revealed that a total of 180,000 ballots were not counted in Florida's presidential vote. The Gore Campaign, members of the Congressional Black Caucus, civil rights attorney's and the disenfranchised voters themselves sought for every Floridian's vote to be counted by requesting a hand count in the 4 counties that demonstrated voting irregularities. In these 4 counties in which the hand count was sought-all heavily Democratic areas-over 73,000 ballots were not counted in the presidential tally.

Beyond these egregious voting irregularities, millions of Americans were denied their fundamental right to vote simply because they were unable to vote due to prior work commitments. In fact, the great untold story in the last election and in most elections in America is the voting disparity that exists between those who can afford to take time off work to vote and those who cannot. Moreover, this perpetual disparity has caused a voting gap that threatens the very fabric of our representational democracy and has challenged our nation to find a solution that addresses this great disparity.

In the words of "Freedom," a poem by Langston Hughes we hear the threat to our national existence, "freedom will not come today, this year nor ever, through compromise and fear. I have as much right as the other fellow has to stand on my two feet and own the land. I tire so of hearing people say, let things take their course. Tomorrow is another day. I do not need my freedom when I'm dead. I cannot live on tomorrow's bread. Freedom is a strong seed planted in the soil. I live here too. I want freedom just as you."

The question before us now is how do we make sure that this type of disenfranchisement never again rears its ugly head, especially in a year when we again face a Presidential election bound to be decided by a few thousand or even hundred votes. We know that in 2001 here in the State of Florida they passed a $32 million election reform package. The measure is supposed to eliminate punch card and hand-counted paper ballots and all mechanical-lever voting. Because of this reform, never again in the State of Florida will an election be decided based on hanging, dangling or pregnant chads. However, just because we may have eliminated antiquated voting systems in this State, it does not mean that voters can not be disenfranchised. More modern electronic voting systems have shown to have a multitude of questions surrounding them. First, is the question of fraud, these new electronic systems must be proven to be tamper proof from outside sources. More so, we must insure that the companies who supply these machines do not have any partisan stake in the election they are helping to determine. These questions were raised earlier this year about Diebold Inc, which will supply many of the electronic voting machines throughout the country and whose President has very close links to President Bush and the Republican Party. While I do not make accusations that have not been fully proven, my point is that even with newer and more advanced equipment there are questions and issues that need to be addressed. Many of these electronic voting machines do not even leave a paper trail record to review in case questions of fraud or tampering were ever raised in an election. As our society has grown more technological we have come to depend more and more on computers, but I think we all still recognize that while computers are free from bias, they are not completely free from error or misuse. Which is why I was truly disappointed to learn that the Governor of this State, Jeb Bush recently denied a request to conduct a statewide, independent audit of voting systems. This despite the fact that electronic voting computers crashed in May and November of 2003, erasing information from the September 2002 gubernatorial primaries and other elections. I am disappointed that officials in this State or any other State in this Nation for that matter would not take every step possible to ensure a proper election this year. The truth unfortunately, is that proper voting rights is not as much of an issue for some people whose rights have always been protected and recognized, as it is for people in our community who after more than two hundred years are still longing for true equality.

While there is much reform to be done on the local, State and national level to make sure that every vote is counted, the real reform begins and ends with each of us. We must continue to go to the polls and we must be vigilant. In this year's election if we see a brother or sister being told that they are not registered even though they are or we see a fellow neighbor being harassed while others are allowed to vote freely; we must stand up for them. Together as a community there is no hurdle we can not overcome, we will not allow our rights to be frittered away. It is equality we have strived for since before we were even born and it is equality we will achieve because our struggle is righteous and our means are just.

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