Political Quotes

“Madam Chairman, I urge support for the underlying legislation, H.R. 1, which in my mind reaffirms the right to vote and empowers the individual citizens in our democracy and empowers their role in our democracy over the wealthy special interests that has been the trend as of late. My amendment asks that in the spirit of this bill, which is to protect voting rights, that we protect Americans who opt to vote by mail from unnecessary impediments to voting. Specifically, this amendment requires States to provide voters with an opportunity to return ballots at a polling place on election day. At its face value, this might not seem like a drastic ask, but it merits consideration, granted efforts by States to shortchange eligible voters from casting their ballot by denying them the right to return the ballot on election day. In Arizona, about 228,000 people dropped off their ballots at the polling places on election day in November of this general election, a majority of which, I should add, were Republican voters. The reason why I believe that my amendment should be supported is to protect the vote-by-mail process. In 2016, 16 States showed a combined percentage of greater than 50 percent of votes cast early, by mail, or via absentee ballots, including my State of Arizona. As more Americans chose to vote by mail, lawmakers in this Chamber should facilitate rather than hinder the right to vote by mail.…”