Chris Dodd: “I commend and thank our colleague from California who, as a result of her objection, has allowed us to have a couple of…”

“I commend and thank our colleague from California who, as a result of her objection, has allowed us to have a couple of hours here to debate and discuss the events that occurred on election day this year. I thank her for doing that. Whatever occurred during the day, I think it is important that this body take a moment now and review what has occurred since election 2000 and this election as well. I recognize we are still operating under a very imperfect system when it comes to the Federal elections in this country. I thank the distinguished minority leader, Senator Reid, for commending this body for its support of the Help America Vote Act that we adopted almost unanimously in this body a couple of years ago, through the work of Senators McConnell and Bond and others. It was certainly not a perfect piece of legislation, but it was the first time in the history of this country, outside of the Voting Rights Act, that this body, the Congress of the United States, spoke comprehensively about the conduct of Federal elections. I point out to my colleagues that while certainly things need to be done to improve even that effort, there were 119,000 provisional ballots cast in the State of Ohio that never would have been counted had we not adopted provisional ballot requirements. There are certainly legitimate questions about what does and doesn't constitute a ballot.”