National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009--Continued

Floor Speech

NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2009--Continued -- (Senate - September 11, 2008)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, the right to vote is one of the most cherished civil rights, enshrined in the 15th, 17th, and 19th amendments of the Constitution. It is the cornerstone of democratic government, and it is what makes us a government ``of the people, by the people, and for the people.''

Throughout our history, whenever we have seen people deprived of this right, whether by law or by practice, brave Americans have stood up to fight for their right to vote. Today there is a significant portion of our population that has been disenfranchised.

Today, the very men and women who have joined the military to defend our right to vote have been effectively cut out of the democratic process. Make no mistake; this is one of the most important civil rights issues we face today, and we cannot afford to delay action to address it.

The Secretary of Defense has delegated the responsibility for safeguarding the voting rights of our troops to an office called the Federal Voting Assistance Program. Unfortunately, as our troops serve on far-away bases overseas and fight in foreign theaters of conflict, the Department of Defense's Federal Voting Assistance Program has failed to protect their most basic right as American citizens. This failure is twofold.

First, the DOD's voting office has failed to adequately educate our men and women in uniform about how to vote. Second, it has failed to take adequate steps to put in place a system that provides our troops a reasonable opportunity to vote--one which ensures their votes are counted.

Already, the DOD is required by law to provide troops with voting assistance, and information on how to get ballots, and how to cast their votes. But, its efforts have fallen woefully short. A recent survey found that less than 60 percent of troops knew where to obtain voting information on base.

Of our overseas troops who did ask for mail-in ballots, less than half of their completed ballots actually arrived at the local election office. What is worse, many of those arrived late, resulting in them being rejected and thus not counted at all.

It is absolutely shameful that so many of our troops and their families have been cut out of the democratic process through bureaucratic inefficiency.

In order to prevent this disenfranchisement from happening again, I introduced the Military Voting Protection Act, or MVP Act, to require the DOD to collect our overseas troops' completed ballots and expedite their delivery through express shipping. Electronic tracking would be required as well, so our troops would have the peace of mind of knowing their ballots actually arrived at the election office. The MVP Act would markedly improve the current system and help protect our troops' right to vote.

But yesterday, when I asked to bring this important, time-critical legislation forward as an amendment to the DOD authorization bill, the majority objected, saying they needed to hear from the Rules Committee first. My legislation would apply only to military servicemembers. We are working on the DOD authorization bill, so I am not sure why members of the Armed Services Committee need to wait and see what the Rules Committee thinks of an amendment this important. I am left scratching my head.

Rather than even considering this legislation, and debating how best to fix our broken military voting system, Democrats cited weak excuses for blocking this amendment. With a national election looming, and a disgraceful track record over the past two election cycles of our widespread troop disenfranchisement, I am dumbfounded as to why my colleagues would put off this civil rights issue and effectively cheat our troops out of a better, more reliable system for voting from overseas.

Last night, the Rules Committee offered me a counterproposal, which seeks to make the implementation of these important improvements to our troops' voting system optional. In essence, by making the implementation of this program optional, the Democrats are saying to our troops that their civil rights are not guaranteed but an option. That is an outrage.

I am afraid this is going to be just another item on a long list of critical issues the majority has put off, despite calls for action from the American people. Another notable example is gas prices--we have been waiting for over 2 years to address gas prices, but still no meaningful action from the majority leadership. Democrats have stonewalled and delayed qualified judicial nominees and have yet to pass a single appropriations bill for the fiscal year that starts in less than 3 weeks.

The rights of our troops to vote cannot fall victim to politics. Our military men and women stand vigilant in the defense of freedom and help safeguard the personal liberties of their fellow Americans. Now, we must be every bit as vigilant in defense of their personal liberties and civil rights. They willingly step into harm's way to ensure the safety of their fellow Americans at home, and they deserve better than a broken voting system and a refusal by their elected leaders to fix it.

Mr. President, I subject the absence of a quorum.

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