Rae Oliver Davis

I appreciate the heroism and the bravery of David and Crystal and all the Capitol Police who do their job every day.

I think clearly we put $15 billion into transit this year. Clearly that shows our willingness to support transit and the Capital Investment Grant program.

Based on your performance over the last few years, I am looking forward to working with you in your new position.

Congressman Rodney Davis from Illinois calls Louisiana his sewage treatment plant.

Mandating States to use paper ballots is a Federal overreach.

Let's be clear. If this markup and this bill is about foreign interference only, we are also missing the point about making sure our election officials have the resources that they need.

I think the paper ballot mandate we have heard from experts repeatedly is where we need to go.

He wants every vote to be counted. We have a lot of Mike Gianasis in every Congressional district in this country.

Not one witness claimed that voting machines were inherently unsafe or that paper ballots were foolproof.

This is a bill that preserves the system that we have, which is a decentralized election system, which allows for less opportunity for nefarious actors and foreign entities to be able to do nefarious things.

This bill that the majority has proposed clearly doesn't do that.

The biggest vulnerability we have is--can you imagine if in 2020 we have the votes actually changed because of insecure voting systems? That would be a catastrophe for our country.

If there is anything that should be bipartisan, it is election security.

I certainly hope we can come together on a lot of the provisions that we agree with.

Mr. Davis of Illinois. I ask for a roll call vote.

Requiring paper ballots that will inevitably lead to longer lines is the antithesis of what my good friend, Chairwoman Fudge, had hearings throughout this country to talk about.

You know, the one thing that every American should know is, when they go in, they cast their ballot, that that ballot is counted as cast.

The security of our national elections is a national concern and a national emergency.

I know darn well that Mike Gianasi is going to run the fairest election possible. He wants every vote to be counted.

I would like the record to show that we won the voice vote, but I will vote yes.

Let's stop playing games. If we were sitting down and talking about how to solve this problem in a bipartisan way--and, again, the Democratic Majority did not live up to the promise that they made to the American people, that they wanted…

It keeps the decentralization. If we are worried about nefarious actors, the last thing we want as a Congress is the Federal Government being the clearinghouse for elections and registration and vote counting.

These mandatory paper ballots--again, I alluded to--what technology may exist in the future to help us lessen the lines in polling places?

Voter-verified paper ballots are the solution that really address the risks and threats that our Nation faces.

I certainly appreciate the vital role States and counties play in administering elections, but it is the duty of the Federal Government to help States respond to this national security.