Political Quotes

“today, we examine a flawed bill targeted against minority voters in this country, H.R. 1428 is crafted not only to intimidate voters and fail to preserve citizens' privacy, it also places an undue burden on the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). H.R. 1428's mechanism to ensure voter authenticity is through confirmation from the SSA and INS. However, these organizations themselves stated that they cannot guarantee U.S. citizenship for all Americans for the following reasons: The SSA's citizenship data is self-reported (before 1978, the SSA did not require citizenship information); INS has accuracy problems with current computer-recorded information (before the INS began keeping computer records, thousands of individuals were already naturalized; these are Americans who will be ``missed'' if this system is in place). H.R. 1428's attempts to ensure a voter's American citizenship is shadowed by a greater offense to our constituents. It sends a clear signal for minorities not to come to the ballot box because they will be harassed and unduly questioned about their loyalties. According to H.R. 1428, if the SSA and INS cannot confirm an individual's citizenship, local and state officials can deny a person the vote. Now, if your last name is Nguyen or Santos, I can assure you that you should expect more questions and obstacles than if your name was Newton or Smith.”