Mr. President, we are no longer in an election year, which makes this the perfect time for this Congress to take action on real and meaningful election reform. Regardless of which candidates we voted for last November, we can all agree that in the world’s greatest democracy, in this year 2013 we should put in place systems that ensure that every voter will be able to cast their ballot without unnecessary delays, red tape, or restriction in our next elections. That’s why I’m looking forward to working with my colleagues here in the Senate, with leaders in state and local governments across the country, and with folks in the U.S. Department of Justice to discuss ways we can reform our election process to make voting more accessible for more Americans.
In his second inaugural address delivered just this Monday, President Obama made a point to tie voting rights to civil rights. President Obama spoke of the long American march toward justice.
He said: ‘And the first steps of that march—of the journey toward a better, fairer, more equal society, one where every American, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or economic status, has the same shot at success—has always started at the ballot box.’
President Obama mentioned Seneca Falls, a central moment in the movement for women’s suffrage, and Selma, the emotional heart of the fight for equal access to voting rights for African Americans.
He [President Obama] said: ‘Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.’
He’s right.
The 2012 elections were a wake-up call to those of us who treasure the right to vote. All over our country—in blue states and red states—Americans saw their fundamental right to vote eroded by exceptionally long lines, confusing rules, and widespread voting machine malfunctions. There were problems in more than a dozen states documented in the media.
There were voting machine irregularities in Pennsylvania and Colorado; error-ridden voter rolls in Ohio; delays counting ballots in Arizona; voters waiting in lines five hours long in Virginia and eight hours long in Florida. We have to do better than this.
As Americans, the right to vote is in our DNA. So just days after these 2012 elections, that had such widespread problems, I introduced the FAST Voting Act, the Fair, Accurate, Secure, and Timely Voting Act, along with Senator Warner and colleagues in the House, Congressman Connolly and Congressman Langevin.
Our bill challenges states to implement commonsense changes well before the next election. It would provide incentives and competitive grants to those states that can turn around their poorest performing polling places, improve the administration of their elections, and make voting faster and more accessible to all voters.
As a former county executive myself, I know that states and local governments are laboratories of democracy. When it comes to administering elections, many states and counties are getting it right. We can learn from them and replicate their successes elsewhere in the country to ensure these same problems do not plague the next national elections.
For example, Florida was one of many states with rampant election problems in 2012. Long lines, limited early voting, and other issues that may have disenfranchised as many as 49,000 Floridians, according to a study by Professor Theodore Allen of the Ohio State University.
Floridians like Richard Jordan. Richard waited more than three hours in a line that just wasn’t moving to try and cast his ballot on Election Day 2012. He had already worked a 10-hour shift that day. He was exhausted, his back hurt, he was hungry, and ultimately in anger decided he could not wait anymore. He simply gave up and walked away; denied the opportunity to cast his ballot by an unprepared, under resourced, or just incompetent election system.
On behalf of voters across the state like Richard, earlier this month Florida’s elections administrators presented Florida’s Governor Rick Scott with a list of reforms they’d like to see implemented to prevent these problems from happening again. Governor Scott admitted that his own state’s election process was clearly in need of improvement. He said he agreed with some of the election supervisors’ proposals. This is in my view, is a very positive step forward, and one which should be undertaken in every state where there is documented need for stronger, fairer, faster, freer elections.
In my view, the federal government can and should play a role in incentivizing that process and ensuring that election improvements are made to last. It can help states move forward in using available technology, and it can ensure states do a better job of enforcing laws that are already on the books.
The National Voter Registration Act, for example, commonly known as the Motor Voter Law, requires states to allow voters to register when they renew their driver’s license at the DMV or at other governmental agencies. Yet there are substantial and credible allegations that some states just aren’t fulfilling their obligation under this Act – blue states, red states, purple states all across the country.
In talking with elections administrators from around the country, it is clear to me that compliance with existing law is not complete. So we have to do more to ensure voters are afforded the rights given to them under current law and that state agencies are doing what is required to simplify the registration process, to maintain uniform and nondiscriminatory voter rolls, and to provide widespread registration opportunities. Enforcing existing law then is just part of the solution to the voting problems we saw across our country in 2012.
We also have to look forward at ways to deliver the best and most efficient voting process to all Americans. There is still much more we can do to meet that goal, and part of the solution, I think, is the mechanism of the FAST Voting Act.
Our legislation focuses on cost-effective reforms, like making it easier to register online and ensuring citizens who move to a new jurisdiction can easily transfer their voter registration. If we use modern technology that we already have at our disposal, we can make it easier for all eligible American citizens to cast their ballot and ensure that every vote is counted.
President Obama was right to mention election reform alongside the most essential civil rights struggles in our country’s history in his inaugural address on Monday. Because making it harder for citizens to vote is a violation of their civil rights. Long lines are just another form of voter disenfranchisement. Running out of ballots can be just another form of voter suppression. The fact is access to vote is denied when registration is cumbersome or inaccessible and when early voter vote-by-mail options are just not available.
So let’s do something now when we are no longer hamstrung by election year politics here in the Senate so that changes that last, changes that make a difference can be implemented well before the next election.
As someone who serves on the Foreign Relations Committee and who often speaks with foreign heads of state, civil society leaders, and voting advocates from around the world, it is an embarrassment that in 2012 our nation couldn’t overcome the simple challenges to ensuring fair and accurate elections all across our country.
If we ignore these assaults on America’s civil rights that we saw last November, we are certain to have to endure them the next time around. We cannot stand by and allow that to happen. Our democracy needs to be a model to the rest of the world for how to ensure that every citizen gets to exercise the right to vote.
Let’s find a way to come together to put meaningful election reforms in place now before we deny one more American their fundamental right to vote for the candidate of their choice.
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