Jack Kingston: “Mr. Speaker, insurgents in Iraq this weekend had vowed to wash the streets in blood. Yet, despite all their threats of…”

“Mr. Speaker, insurgents in Iraq this weekend had vowed to wash the streets in blood. Yet, despite all their threats of people who were going to get killed and places that were going to be bombed, and indeed 43 people were killed, despite all that, voters turned out, of course, in record numbers because the election itself was a record. One voter said on Sunday that each vote was a bullet in the heart of the enemy. We are defeating the terrorists in coming here, he said proudly, as he dipped his finger in the famous purple ink. This was done in over 30,000 polling places. And now the votes are being counted. When we look at the turnout, nearly 60 percent, we are not really sure what the turnout officially is, but compare that to the United States presidential election just this November of a 60.7 percent voter turnout. Yet no one was threatened to be killed. That was the highest turnout in the United States of America in 38 years. Indeed, in my home county in Savannah, Georgia, Chatham County had a turnout of a mere 48 percent 2 years ago when we elected the Governor of Georgia. So for them under these circumstances to have a 60 percent voter turnout, it is phenomenal; but it is also a huge statement on how badly people want freedom, how badly they want to throw off the shackles of oppression, and how they value the opportunity to vote.”