William L. Clay: “With little to no evidence of past fraud, it is outrageous that my Republican colleagues are going to extraordinary…”

“With little to no evidence of past fraud, it is outrageous that my Republican colleagues are going to extraordinary lengths to suppress Democratic votes. H.R. 4844 would impose undue hardship on seniors, women, minorities, the disabled, and lower-income voters, who are all less likely to have proof of citizenship. This bill qualifies as nothing more than a 21st century poll tax, which is unconstitutional. The malicious intent of this law was recently acknowledged in Missouri when a State judge ruled it an impermissible additional qualification to vote and in violation of the State constitution. It would have disenfranchised over 170,000 voters. Mr. Speaker, it is clear that this bill is nothing more than a sham and fraudulent. In Missouri, for instance, we were not able to find any cases of vote fraud over the last 50 years. So would the proponents tell me where the fraud comes in?”