Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006

FANNIE LOU HAMER, ROSA PARKS, AND CORETTA SCOTT KING VOTING RIGHTS ACT REAUTHORIZATION AND AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2006 -- (Senate - July 20, 2006)

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, often when the Senate passes something unanimously, it means that the matter is not so important. That is not the case today. The Voting Rights Act is about as important as it gets. Senators of both political parties deserve great credit for bringing this vitally needed legislation to the floor of the Senate today. I have come to salute those inside and outside the Senate for their work to bring this extraordinarily important issue before the country and before the Senate and to make an appeal to Senators and those outside the Chamber to work for more.

In the past three successive elections--2000, 2002, and 2004--there were scores of accusations of voter intimidation, rigged voting machines, conflicts of interest among elected officials, and other serious electoral abuses. Many newspaper articles, State and Federal governmental investigations, private studies and scores of lawsuits have described in considerable detail the toll that election abuses now take on our democracy. As much as it is an accomplishment that the Senate will be voting to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act today, that law cannot cure many of the problems that we have seen in the last three election cycles. But there is a proven system that can reduce many of these abuses, and I hope in the days ahead the U.S. Congress will take steps to promote it. It is known as vote by mail.

My State of Oregon adopted this election system back in 1998, with nearly 70 percent support of our State's voters. It has been a resounding success any way one looks at it, and it has not been seen in any way as a kind of partisan tool that advantages one particular party or one particular philosophy.

What I want to do this afternoon is describe briefly how Oregon's vote by mail system works and then talk about why the Senate ought to be taking steps to promote it nationally as a way to deal with some of these problems that have swept across our land over the last three election cycles.

In Oregon the system works in this way. At least 2 weeks before election day, election officials mail ballots to all registered voters. The voters mark their ballots, seal and sign those ballots, and return them by mail or by placing them in a secure drop box. Election officials count the votes using optical scanning machines that confirm the signature on the return envelope matches the signature of the voter on file. Each county also provides optional onsite voting booths for individuals who need special accommodations or prefer to vote onsite.

The bottom line is that vote by mail can address many of the problems that plague this country's elections. For example, with vote by mail, there is no waiting in line in the polls for hours. All through our country over the last election we heard complaints about people having to wait in line, often for hours and hours on end. It doesn't happen with vote by mail. Each voter receives a ballot in the mail. They can complete it at home, at work, or wherever is convenient for them. And you don't have the problem of people waiting in line for hours and hours to exercise their franchise.

With vote by mail, no one would get the run-around about which polling place they are supposed to vote at. The ballots are mailed to the citizen's home. If, for some reason, a voter's ballot does not arrive 2 weeks before the election as it is supposed to, the voter has enough time to correct the problem, get their ballot, and then cast it. Americans who face the toughest time getting to the polls, such as citizens with disabilities and the elderly, report that they vote more often using vote by mail. Women, younger voters, stay-at-home moms also report that they vote more often using vote by mail. Once again, it is an opportunity on a bipartisan basis to deal with a very serious problem that we have seen over the last few election cycles.

Citizens wouldn't get the run-around at the polling place when they show up on election day to vote and are told: ``You really shouldn't be here; you ought to be there.'' ``We can't really tell you where you ought to be.'' ``We have all these people in line, and we will try to help you later.'' All of that is eliminated through vote by mail because folks get their ballot at their home.

Third, with vote by mail there is less risk of voter intimidation. A 2003 study of voters in my home State showed that the groups that would be most vulnerable to coercion now favor vote by mail. Over the last few elections, we saw again and again our citizens saying that they feared coercion. They were concerned about intimidation in the exercise of their franchise.

We have documentary proof in our home State, a specific study that I have cited, that citizens who are most vulnerable to intimidation and coercion feel more comfortable voting by mail.

Next, with vote by mail, malfunctioning voting equipment is a thing of the past. Everyone heard the stories in 2004 of citizens who said they voted for one candidate only to see the electronic voting machine indicate that the voter had cast a ballot for somebody else. Irregularities such as this cannot occur in vote by mail. Each voter marks the ballot, reviews it, and submits it, the ballot is counted, and it becomes a paper record--a paper record that is used in the event of a recount.

I happen to believe that we must have a paper trail for every ballot that is cast in our country. It is wrong that there is at present no such paper trail. Every time I have a community meeting, people bring up: why can this not be done? It is just common sense. My home State has led the way to ensure that through our vote-by-mail system there is a paper trail.

With vote by mail, the risk of fraud is minimized. When an Oregon county receives a voter's marked ballot, the ballot is then sent to elections workers trained in signature verification who compare the signature on each ballot against the person's signature on their voter registration card. This can be done quickly and easily because each voter's registration card has been electronically scanned into the system. No ballot is processed or counted until the county is satisfied that the signature on the ballot matches the voter's signature on file. If someone tries to commit fraud, they can be convicted of a Class C felony, spend up to five years in prison, and pay $100,000 in fines.

Vote by mail can help make the problems of recent elections a thing of the past. In doing so, it will make our elections fairer and help reinstill a confidence in our democracy, which frankly, has been lacking.

There are a number of other reasons why I think our country ought to be doing everything possible to encourage citizens to adopt vote by mail. This approach increases election participation. For example, vote by mail helps make voter turnout in Oregon considerably higher than the average national voter turnout. Oregon experienced a record turnout of more than 70 percent in the 2004 Presidential election, compared to 58 percent nationally.

Vote by mail, we find, gets more citizens involved in the issues because folks get their ballots weeks before the final day when their ballot is due, and they have the time to quiz candidates, examine issues that are important to them, and do it in a deliberate fashion that gives them more time.

Next, vote by mail has produced huge savings at the local level for election costs. Vote by mail reduces those election costs by eliminating the need to transport equipment to polling stations and to hire and train poll workers. My home State has reduced its election-related costs by 30 percent since implementing vote by mail. So we have the results. We have the results to show the rest of the country why we ought to be encouraging across the land vote by mail.

In a survey taken 5 years after we implemented this system, more than 8 out of 10 Oregon voters said they preferred voting by mail to traditional voting. I am confident that the rest of our country would embrace it the very same way.

What this is all about, and why I have taken time to discuss our approach, is that I think it is very much in line with both the spirit and the text of the Voting Rights Act. America needs to make sure that no eligible voter, based on color, creed or any other reason, would be disenfranchised. What we are doing in the Senate today by reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act is the right thing. It is clearly a step in the right direction for these difficult times. But I do think much more can be done to improve the election process. I intend to press at every possible opportunity for a way to encourage an approach that has empowered people in my home State in a manner that has far exceeded the expectations of even the biggest boosters. It has been totally nonpartisan.

In Oregon, we were amused in the beginning of our discussion about vote by mail. At the beginning of the discussion, it seemed that a fair number of Republicans were for vote by mail, but a number of Democrats were skeptical. Then, after I won the Senate special election in 1996--and Senator Smith and I have laughed about this often over the years--there was an about face, and it seemed then that Democrats liked vote by mail and Republicans were a little cautious. Our State's citizens said enough of all this nonsense and overwhelmingly voted, on a bipartisan basis, to say this is just plain good government, and this is the way we want to go.

I think the Oregon story can be copied across the country, and I am going to do everything I can to encourage it. The Supreme Court declared in the Reynolds v. Sims case:

[i]t has been repeatedly recognized that all qualified voters have a constitutionally protected right to vote ..... and to have their vote counted.

Promoting vote by mail across our land will help make this constitutional right a reality. I encourage my colleagues to look and study the approach we have used in our State, an approach that will advance the spirit of the Voting Rights Act. Support the Voting Rights Act today and work with us to build on its incredible importance in the days ahead.

I yield the floor.

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