Ted Deutch: “I thank my friend for yielding, and I thank him for the opportunity to come and join with him tonight to address an…”

“I thank my friend for yielding, and I thank him for the opportunity to come and join with him tonight to address an issue of great concern to many Americans. We're here tonight because Republican State legislatures across the Nation are passing laws to make it harder for people to exercise their right to vote. The story they tell is one of rampant voter fraud that threatens the integrity of our elections and the very foundation of our democracy. It's a scary story. Imagine--just imagine--mobs of illegally registered voters entering our poll booths and hijacking our elections. However, there is something far scarier than the story that's being told--and that's the reality. It's the reality that our electoral system is not under siege by voter fraud but, instead, by an historically deliberate and ongoing effort to suppress the votes of America's minorities, seniors, students, and other traditionally Democratic voters. Now, while this is a nationwide trend, there is no question that the recent voting law passed in Florida takes the cake for radically infringing on voting rights. Ask any Floridian. Florida doesn't have a history of voter fraud. Florida has a history of voter suppression. This is a State that didn't ratify the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote, until 1969. This is the State where, in 2000, Secretary of State Katherine Harris eliminated 57,000 votes, mostly of minorities, simply because their names resembled those of persons convicted of crimes.…”