Political Quotes

“with all due respect, I agree with much of what my colleague said, but I want to make a couple of corrections. The $3.5 billion, we are told, is the number if every single precinct in the country decided to change every voting machine. It has to be the most sophisticated equipment you can buy. The number we have put in this bill is not drawn out of thin air. This is a number that should accommodate virtually every jurisdiction to make changes. Obviously that will not happen in every jurisdiction. But the money will be there, provided the Appropriations Committee supports what the President asked for in this budget and what we included. Second, I make the case again, this bill gives people the right to be able to verify how they have voted and to have the right to ask for that check to occur. It says nothing in here to prohibit that. In fact, the resources are going to the States, and in this particular case, so they can get the equipment that Illinois will have in Cook County, to be able to update its punchcard system or whatever else it wants to have. These are very significant steps forward that come closer to addressing the problem that the Senator from Illinois identified. Not as comprehensively as he would, I add, with his amendment; his amendment goes much further than that.”