James Davis: “as a Floridian, I wanted to share the painful story about what happened in Florida one more time tonight. Part of the…”

“as a Floridian, I wanted to share the painful story about what happened in Florida one more time tonight. Part of the tragedy of the Florida election, which was our country's election, was that the margin of error ultimately exceeded the margin of victory. After the election, one of the painful lessons we learned was that it was widely exposed that we had an inexcusably casual, and, quite arguably, unconstitutional deficiency in our voting election system. Shame on us. Shame on anyone in the position of an elected authority should anything like that ever happen again. Now, as the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Hastings), and I commend him for offering the amendment, has pointed out, the State of Florida has taken the lead on making illegal the infamous punchcard voting machine and providing partial funding to counties, including the county of the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) and me, to fund some form of substitute technology. A consensus is developing among Democrats and Republicans here, and I believe around the country, that the solution is a form of technology that is precinct-based and that gives the voter the opportunity to verify his or her vote. In a State and country where we have increasing numbers of voters who are aging, who are experiencing disabilities, be it sight or something else, it is very important, it is fundamental, that that voter has the opportunity to verify his or her vote before they leave the voting booth.”