Freedom to Vote Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I come to the floor to speak in support of what is right before us right now, and that is, proceeding to debate legislation that is critical to our democracy, the Freedom to Vote Act, which I introduced with the members of the voting rights working group assembled by Leader Schumer. That would be Senators Manchin, Merkley, Padilla, King, Kaine, Tester, and Warnock. We all have our names on this bill. We all feel very strongly about this bill. Why? Because the freedom to vote is fundamental to all of our freedoms, and it is currently under attack.

Since the 2020 elections, we have seen a persistent and coordinated assault on the freedom to vote, but it has been under attack for much longer, as States have closed polling locations on a massive scale and purged hundreds of thousands of voters from the rolls.

As foreign adversaries have actually attempted to interfere in our elections, these attacks on our democracy demand a Federal response. When you have one State attacked by a foreign adversary, when they try to get into voter rolls in Illinois or Hawaii, are we going to expect those States to respond on their own? When you have an assault, a coordinated assault, on voting rights, so you have similar bills introduced across the country to limit drop-off boxes; when you have coordinated attacks to limit vote-by-mail; when you have coordinated attacks to limit registration to vote, it demands a Federal response.

What is amazing about our Constitution is that the Founding Fathers anticipated this because right in the Constitution, it says that Congress--this place where we work--can make and alter the laws regarding Federal elections. It is bulletproof. It has been upheld time and time again.

The urgent need for action could not be more serious. With over 400 bills having been introduced in nearly every State to limit the freedom to vote--over 30 of those have been signed into law--with redistricting underway to draw congressional maps that will define our democracy for the next decade--and the first primary for the 2022 elections is in a little over 4 months in Texas--we must act now.

It has been over 9 months since that violent mob of insurrectionists stormed into this Chamber, opened up people's desks, and sat where the Presiding Officer is sitting right now. They desecrated our Capitol, the temple of our democracy. This was not just an attack on a building. It was an attack on our Republic. It was an attack on public servants, police officers who were serving us that day.

As I said from the inaugural stage just 2 weeks later under that beautiful blue sky at the very place where you could still see the spray paint on the columns, where we stood in front of makeshift windows--where we stood together, leaders of both political parties in both Chambers and from across the Nation--I said: This is the day our democracy picks itself up, brushes itself off, and does what America always does--goes forward as one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

We took back our democracy that day. With this Freedom to Vote Act, which includes provisions that have the support of 78 percent of Americans who favor 2 weeks of early voting and 83 percent of voters who support public disclosure of campaign contributions because they believe the people should be running the government, not lobbyists and not outside groups, we will take it back again from those who are trying to take away the people's constitutional right to vote.

With 19 States having enacted laws this year to roll back the freedom to vote, we can't simply sit back and watch our democracy be threatened. Whether it be threatened with bear spray, crowbars, axes, or whether it be threatened with long lines, no ballot drop-off boxes, and secret money, we must stand up for our democracy whether we are Democrats or Republicans or Independents. That is what our country is about.

When we are faced with a coordinated effort across our country to limit the freedom to vote, we must stand up and do what is right. But, as we have seen in States like Georgia and Florida and Iowa and Montana and last month in Texas, we are up against a coordinated attack. As Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock has said, it is really quite simple: Some people don't want some people to vote. That is what this is about.

What is this Freedom to Vote Act about? It is about minimum standards for voting. You know, it is 15 days of early voting. My State votes up to 40 days. That is not what we put in this bill. We put minimum standards in this bill, ensuring voters have access to at least 2 weeks of early voting so they can cast their mail-in ballot without an excuse--something people were able to use as a way to safely vote in the middle of a public health crisis. They did it in record numbers in the middle of a crisis because they believed in our democracy no matter which way they voted. Why would we take away that right from them now when we are seeing a curtailing of that right in many States across this country?

It counters partisan interference in election administrations, makes sure that these super PACs and issue advocacy groups that hide behind veils have to show who is giving them the money, and prohibits partisan gerrymandering.

Then we listened to secretaries of state across this country, Democrats and Republicans. We listened to our colleague Senator Manchin, who proudly has his name on this bill. So what did we do? We made changes to this bill. It provides flexibility for small and vote- by-mail jurisdictions on early voting. It makes it easier to implement automatic voter registration. It creates a new flexible source of Federal funding to help our States. It ensures election officials can use best practices for maintaining accurate and up-to-date voter rolls.

It is important to recognize that the Freedom to Vote Act is the first piece of voting rights legislation this Congress to come to the Senate floor with the support of all 50 Senate Democrats.

Now, our Republican colleagues may not agree with everything in this bill. OK. Then don't be scared. Don't hide behind your desks. Don't deny us the right to simply debate this bill. Our leader, Senator Schumer, has made it very clear: We are open to amendments on this bill. We welcome your amendments. We are not putting a limit on amendments.

So why would you shy away from debating this bill--unless you just don't want the American people to hear the truth; unless you don't want the stories told about what is going on in places like Georgia, where voters are now being asked to put their birth date on the outside of the inside envelope. Maybe you don't want to have the stories told about how voters in Wisconsin almost--except for the Governor stopping it in its tracks, voters in Wisconsin almost were limited in the entire city of Milwaukee to one drop-off box. That bill passed their legislature. That is what we are talking about here.

So let's have this debate. Let's hear the argument. Let's not stop the debate over the fundamental right to vote that our entire democracy is founded on.

If our Republican colleagues have constructive ideas on ways to improve this legislation and if they are willing to work with us on amendments, then we are prepared to hear them. We are simply asking them to open up the debate. Instead, it will be more people standing in line, like they did in Wisconsin in the primary, in homemade masks and garbage bags in a rainstorm just to exercise their right to vote. It is going to be people who are told, like they just were in Georgia: You can't even vote on weekends in the runoff period. It is going to be people who served in our military who have to wait in line in the hot Sun, wait for hours to vote. That didn't happen when they signed up to serve our country, but it happens when they try to vote.

Let's have that debate. Americans have fought and died to protect our freedom to vote. They have done so on the battlefield, and they did so in marches during the civil rights movement. Fifty-six years after the Voting Rights Act was passed by this Chamber and signed into law, we cannot shut down the debate.

Our Nation was founded on the ideals of democracy, and we have seen for ourselves in this very building that we can't afford to take that for granted. We can't do it when legislators and Members of Congress get to pick and choose who is going to be able to vote easily. We do it by debating real ideas and standing on the shoulders of those who went out to vote. That is what a democracy is about.

I urge my colleagues to open up the debate, to not be afraid and shut down the debate, to not hide under their desks, to not put their heads down. I urge them to simply open up the debate.

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