Providing for Consideration of H.R. 4844, Federal Election Integrity Act of 2006

PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 4844, FEDERAL ELECTION INTEGRITY ACT OF 2006 -- (House of Representatives - September 20, 2006)

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I rise in opposition to this bill.

The gentleman who has just spoken represents Georgia. Georgia passed a bill. The superior court has now twice held that bill to be unconstitutional. It is unconstitutional because it undermines the ability of Americans to vote. It in effect imposes additional tests.

In my State, I have been active for 40 years, I will tell my friend, I don't remember a case, not one, where citizenship was raised in our State. I venture if I asked all of you to prove to me you were a U.S. citizen right now, nobody on this floor could do it. Not one of you. You might give me a license. You might say, well, I was born here, there or everywhere. But nobody could prove they were a U.S. citizen.

Ladies and gentlemen, this bill is tantamount to a 21st century poll tax. It will disenfranchise large numbers of legal voters and disproportionately affect elderly people with disabilities, rural voters, students, racial and ethnic minorities, and low-income voters. Indeed, that may be its purpose. Hear me. That may be its purpose. All of these folks are less likely to have the current valid photo identification required by this bill.

It is highly ironic, Mr. Speaker, that just a few short weeks ago, this Congress reauthorized key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 after defeating a number of crippling amendments offered by the other side of the aisle, that landmark law designed to make voting easier and more fair, to address centuries, centuries, of discrimination. People were told they couldn't vote because of the color of their skin. People were told they couldn't vote because of their gender. They were told you can go to war, but you can't vote. We have changed that. Let us not now retreat and say, yes, but we are going to make it more difficult.

Today, through this voter ID bill, the Republican majority would make voting more onerous and burdensome for many, many Americans. Show me the cases. Show me the examples of the problem you are trying to solve.

Mr. Speaker, this legislation is nothing more than a partisan political stunt. All of us are united in seeking to eliminate voter fraud. I stand against voter fraud. I worked with the Help America Vote Act Coalition to pass the Help America Vote Act. We have staff on here who worked very hard on that bill. We debated this issue, and the Congress rejected it. But now, 7 days left in the session, let us appeal to the fear, and, yes, perhaps the prejudice of people.

I ask that this bill be defeated. It is a bad bill for America. It is a bad bill for democracy. It is a bad bill for the House of Representatives to pass.

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman asked for examples? I have an example here of a study that was done by the Johns Hopkins University computer science students that found 1,500 dead people listed who had voted in past elections. Now, you want to talk about onerous voting. It is difficult to get out of a grave and vote.

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentlewoman yield?

Mrs. CAPITO. I yield to the gentleman from Maryland.

Mr. HOYER. They found 1,500. Can the gentlewoman cite me one instance of a criminal charge being proven that that is the case? I don't doubt that you can assert that some people said there is fraud. Yes. Can you cite me one conviction of anybody who facilitated one of those 1,500 dead people going in, saying, ``I am Sam Brown,'' who is dead, ``and I want to vote''? Can you cite me one example of one conviction where that was found to be the fact, as opposed to an assertion?

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, after the fact I cannot cite you one example, but I don't think the gentleman would deny that fraud occurred and has occurred under this.

Mr. HOYER. Can I respond that I do agree with the gentlewoman that fraud does occur, and when it occurs, we ought to prosecute it. When fraud occurs, we ought to put those people in jail, because they undermine the rest of us who are voting honestly and fairly.

What we ought not do is respond to that by making it more difficult for many Americans to cast the basic right that they have as American citizens, the vote.

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. Speaker, I agree with the gentleman. We don't want to disenfranchise anybody from voting, because voting is something that we all cherish not only in this Hall, but in every household in America. I believe that asking somebody to show a photo ID, which we do for many things, to buy cigarettes, beer, get on an airplane, travel, and many other instances, cash a check, we are asked for photo ID in many instances, and I think we provide in this bill for those who might not have photo ID who need it.

Once they get it, I think it would be viewed as a positive thing for them, so they wouldn't be going, as they do in many cases to check-cashing facilities that don't require a photo ID, and they end up paying 30 and 40 percent surcharges for that.

I would like to say, in my State of West Virginia, we just had five Federal convictions for vote fraud, vote buying. So it exists. And it is a defeating thing that occurs from State to State, because it defeats those of us who get up on that election morning or have gotten up earlier to early vote or send in our absentee ballot. It feels like our vote is being disenfranchised.

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