Unanimous Consent Request--S. 4033

Floor Speech

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Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I thank, first of all, as I see him leave the floor, the Senator from Illinois, for his very strong statement. I am going to echo a lot of the same things. I thank him for his continued leadership. And, of course, I know we are going to hear from Senator Coons shortly and Senator Blumenthal, but a lot of the efforts go to Senator Klobuchar with her leadership on the Senate Rules Committee.

These issues around election security go back to the first bipartisan effort immediately after 2016, the Honest Ads Act. It is unfortunate that we are now heading into the election--126 days, I believe, left-- and this body has still not voted on a single stand-alone election bill, even though we have seen the Russian interference of 2016 and even though we know that Russia and other countries are back. I think history will judge those who prevented those votes from happening if we see the kind of potential disruption this fall that we saw in 2016.

Today, I am here to join Senator Klobuchar and Senator Blumenthal, as well, to make sure that everybody has the right to vote in November and that they are able do it in a safe and secure way. As Senator Durbin said, from Wisconsin to Georgia, to Kentucky, we are seeing a dangerous trend where too many voters are having to choose between their safety and their right to vote. My fear is that as we head into November without a plan and without a strategy for protecting the right to vote and ensuring equal access to the ballot box, we could see levels of voter suppression not seen since the Jim Crow era.

Now, we all know we have enormous challenges with COVID-19, and we have to make sure that our polling places don't become vectors for spreading the virus. The way we do that is not by restricting access to the ballot box, not in the United States of America. That is not how the world's greatest democracy should meet this challenge.

If we are going to preserve the integrity of our elections and the trust of the American people, it is essential that States and the Federal Government adapt to the challenges of this pandemic and actually expand access to the ballot box. In short, we need to make it easier and safer for Americans to exercise their right to vote.

The good news is, we don't have to reinvent the wheel. A number of States--red States, blue States, purple States--have adopted a range of convenient voting procedures that work quite well. Some of these procedures including ample early voting opportunities and no-excuse absentee ballots, all of which reduce the risk but also make sure we continue to be able to increase access.

In my home State of Virginia, due to recent legislative changes, we have curbside voting for seniors and people with disabilities, and we have expanded the no-excuse absentee ballot. Unfortunately, despite all these effective and secure tools at our disposal, we have also seen States implement restrictions in the name of safety that have disenfranchised far too many Americans.

In Wisconsin's April primary, for example, Milwaukee reduced its number of polling places from 180 to just 5. We saw similar moves recently in Georgia and Kentucky. We know whom those restrictions disenfranchise. It is the poor; it is the elderly; it is workers just getting off their shift; and, disproportionately, it is Black and Latino voters who face the brunt of these restrictions. The truth is, this is not right. I think we all know that.

We have a moral obligation to make sure our tools to counter COVID-19 are not used to intimidate and suppress voters. Just last week, Senator Klobuchar and I sent letters raising the warning that bad actors could use testing, immunity, and protective equipment as a pretense to turn away voters or increase the difficulty of reaching the ballot box on election day.

Ideally, our election officials could come together around a national strategy of preparing every polling place and precinct for administering our elections during a pandemic.

Unfortunately, there are those, including the President, who have tried to politicize this issue. In fact, we have seen the President spreading utter misinformation about mail-in voting.

The President seems to have forgotten that he has voted by mail in not simply the last election but in the last three elections. What he fundamentally fails to understand is that the right to vote belongs to the voters, not to the politicians. It is our job to make sure that Americans can exercise their rights in a way that is safe and secure.

That is why Congress must rise to the occasion and ensure Americans can vote safely and securely. The time is now to start serious preparations on contingencies to protect our elections from both the pandemic and those who take advantage of it.

I am a sponsor of the bill that Senator Klobuchar has tried to UC tonight, and I am disappointed that it was blocked from passing, but I look forward to continuing to work with her and all of my other colleagues to make sure we get this job done.

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