Protecting Right to Vote: Election Deception & Irregularities in Federal Elections-By John Conyers

[kpete]

Protecting the Right to Vote: Election Deception and Irregularities in Recent Federal Elections
By Rep. John Conyers
March 07, 2007

The following opening statement was delivered at the Judiciary hearing “Protecting the Right to Vote: Election Deception and Irregularities in Recent Federal Elections” by Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) on March 7, 2007.


There is no more important issue that comes before this committee, this congress, or this nation that protecting the right to vote. Our democracy is premised on the notion of one person, one vote. It is the keystone right of our nation, and without it, all of the other rights and priveleges of our people would quickly become meaningless.

Protecting this precious right does not come easily or cheaply. In a very real sense, we fought a war of Independence with England over our people’s right to vote, and the most basic reform that grew out of the Civil War was the Fifteenth’s Amendment’s protection of the right to vote. Even than, it was not until we passed the Voting Rights Act in 1965 that we began to give true meaning to that right.

..............

And we need a fairer, more voter-friendly system for provisional ballots, so that innocent confusion on election day does not prevent eligible voters from casting a ballot and having it counted where reasonably practicable. We have seen disturbing instances of partisan state and local officials using hypertechnicalities to subvert the intent of the Help America Vote Act.

If we allow the infrastructure of our democracy to decay, our citizens will lose faith in our elections – too many already have – and the very legitimacy of our democratic institutions is at risk. Forty years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act – and I sat in this body when it was enacted – voters across the country continue to be the targets of deceptive practices and intimidation aimed at preventing them from voting. It is long past time for federal legislation to stop this from occurring.


more at:
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2307&Itemid=26

[BeFree]

1. It is

Long past time for such federal legislation to ensure everyone who can vote gets their vote counted, and counted correctly.

Now who in the hell would be against that?

[bleever]

2. K&R! Thank you Mr. Conyers!

And thank you, kp.

:hi:

[Stevepol]

3. K&R! n/t

[Land Shark]

4. Good remarks by Cong. Conyers, for sure. Worth reading in full.

[FogerRox]

5. Too bad this guy isn't running for president

DRAFT CONYERS ! ! ! ! !!