William Tauzin: “Mr. Chairman, we recently had an election in Louisiana under the ``motor voter'' law. That election left us with a huge…”

“Mr. Chairman, we recently had an election in Louisiana under the ``motor voter'' law. That election left us with a huge and extended voter inquiry by the Senate committee questioning the outcome of that Senate race. The reason that happened in our State was, the allegations of people registering improperly and then voting multiple times by simply changing outer garments and coats and walking back in the polls and voting again, the reason all of that happened was because the election safeguards in our State completely broke down. The Senate committee that investigated that election ended up saying, ``We cannot tell you whether or not voter fraud occurred in Louisiana, because all of the systems by which we ought to be able to tell whether it occurred broke down.'' A newspaper in Lake Charles using the motor voter law attempted to register 21 fictitious individuals and ended up registering 19 successfully. One of them was a dog, and anyone representing themselves to be that person that was a dog could have shown up on Election Day in Louisiana and voted because this was no requirement in the law then to produce any photo I.D. Since that time, the Federal Government has finally allowed Louisiana to require a photo I.D. It is now the law of Louisiana, now approved by the Justice Department in our State following that terrible, indeed questionable election in Louisiana.”