Debbie Wasserman Schultz: “the King amendment is a vote in favor of discrimination against language minorities. This point was driven home by a…”

“the King amendment is a vote in favor of discrimination against language minorities. This point was driven home by a Federal court in Osceola County, Florida, just a few weeks ago. Osceola County was purposefully denying voter registration and assistance opportunities to Spanish language voters, including a large Puerto Rican population. The Department of Justice sued and secured a consent decree requiring the county to comply with Federal law. In July 2002, Osceola County became covered by section 203 of the Voting Rights Act. However, the county continued to neglect its duties under Federal law. The Federal court found just 2 weeks ago that there is considerable evidence to suggest that the county's institution and maintenance of an at-large voting system was motivated by a desire to dilute the vote of an emerging Hispanic population. Now, we are not talking about something that happened 40 years ago. This is just a few weeks ago now, in 2006. Eliminating section 203 will encourage jurisdictions to disenfranchise emerging language minorities, which will be compounded by depriving these taxpaying U.S. citizens of the assistance they need. Really, do you think that people who speak flawless English, who can't understand balloting initiatives that are complex, if they have a hard time, then what do you think someone who has English as a second language can do? Not very much without the assistance of section 203. The CHAIRMAN.…”