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COPYRIGHT 2005 Congressional Quarterly, Inc.
Original Source: Political Transcript Wire
SENATORS OBAMA AND DODD, AND REPRESENTATIVES CONYERS AND LEWIS HOLD A NEWS CONFERENCE ON THE HELP AMERICA VOTE ACT
SEPTEMBER 20, 2005
SPEAKERS: U.S. SENATOR BARACK OBAMA (D-IL)
U.S. SENATOR CHRISTOPHER DODD (D-CT)
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE JOHN LEWIS (D-GA) U.S. REPRESENTATIVE JOHN CONYERS (D-MI)
[*] OBAMA: Sorry we're a little bit late, everybody. Had a lively caucus discussion about a variety of topics.
I'm Senator Barack Obama from Illinois. I'm joined here with my colleague in the Senate and the ranking member on the Rules Committee, Senator Christopher Dodd. Also, the dean of the Black Caucus and outstanding member of the House of Representatives, John Conyers, as well as a genuine American hero in my mind, John Lewis.
I'm honored to be standing alongside all of these members to talk about an issue that I think is of utmost importance as we examine how we're going to fix our voting system and make sure that people feel confident in the integrity of the electoral system.
In the weeks since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, our country, I think, has been awakened to the plight of the most vulnerable of Americans, the people who don't have cars to get out of harm's way, who can't afford $100 worth of gas, who don't have bottled water stored in their house and don't have a credit card to check into a hotel.
We've learned that when we pass laws and make policy in this country, our government all too often forgets those in need.
Now, we are in danger of making a similar mistake, this time by potentially limiting access to one of our most fundamental and constitutionally protected rights: the right to vote.
Yesterday, the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform released its recommendations for improving the electoral process. They had a lot of good ideas in this commission.
OBAMA: I'm hopeful that some of them get taken up in the Senate band the House. Unfortunately, the report also recommended the implementation of a national voter ID requirement.
And this is a requirement that would be so incredibly restrictive that you couldn't even prove your identity in order to vote if you had a U.S. military photo ID or a U.S. passport.
Now, this is a mistake. And if you're wondering why, you only have to look at John Lewis' home state of Georgia and what they have recently done to give you a sense of the dangers of this proposal.
Georgia has instituted a law that requires some of the poorest among us, those who probably don't have access to transportation, to possibly travel great distances and pay up to $35 just of the privilege of making their voice heard.
This is an extraordinarily heavy burden for the 150,000 Georgians over 70 who do not have government-issued photo identification. And if other states followed suit, it would be a heavy burden for nearly one in eight Americans who don't have a driver's license.
And we have to remember who these folks are: disproportionately poor and without easy access to all the documents necessary for a government-issued ID.
And there are just a couple of statistics that I want people to keep in mind.
It's estimated that six to 10 percent of people don't have a driver's license or a state-issued ID.
In Georgia, 36 percent of Georgians over 75 years old don't have a driver's license.
It's worth noting that the state of Georgia, so far, has set up a little more than 50 centers to obtain this photo ID that is now required to vote, but there are 159 counties.
One of the places they failed to place a center to get this photo ID just happened to be the largest city in the state, Atlanta, Georgia.
Three million disabled people do not have driver's licenses.
African Americans on average have twice as many people who don't have driver's licenses as white Americans.
OBAMA: Only 22 percent of black males between the ages of 18 and 24 have a driver's license.
Now, I think that just gives you a sense of who could potentially be impacted by this situation.
Now, one other point that I think is important to make: Yesterday, there were statements made that, "Well, it's true that Georgia's charging money, but the Baker-Carter commission recommends that these national IDs be provided for free."
Given the budget crunch that we're under, given the constant pull and tug, the difficulty in getting any reforms initiated after the 2000 election, we've yet to see serious reforms after the 2004 election, the notion that somehow Congress is going to come up with the money to help states fully fund a mechanism to get a national photo ID doesn't make any sense, particularly since the rationale is supposedly to put an end to voter fraud and there's been no proof so far that any significant voter fraud has taken place as a consequence of people using fake IDs.
This is a classic example of a solution in search of a problem. And as a consequence of this solution, what we would end up having are a lot of people who are disenfranchised throughout the country.
So let me just end by saying this: In the last elections, Americans stood for hours and hours just to exercise their constitutional right to vote. We should be making easier for them to vote, not harder. And we should be figuring out how to make it easier for all Americans, not just those who have a car.
With that, what I'd like to do is introduce my colleague, Senator Dodd, who in turn will introduce our colleagues from the House.
DODD: And thank you very much.
First, let me thank Barack Obama for introducing the resolution. And I'm very pleased to join with him in that effort and to be standing here with John Conyers, whom I have worked with for almost 30 years, as a former member of the House.
DODD: He tolerates my...
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