On the recordJuly 19, 2011
I thank the gentlelady for yielding. Mr. Speaker, across the country, Republican-led legislatures are pushing and passing laws that will suppress minority and elderly voters in the coming election. Under the guise of ``eliminating voter fraud,'' Republicans have a solution to a problem that simply does not exist. In my home State of North Carolina, where the Republican legislature is attempting to require voter ID at the polls, there were only 44 cases of voter fraud in the 2008 and 2010 elections combined. Forty-four cases out of over 7 million ballots cast. Is this a serious voter problem? No. Unfortunately, it is a cynical and malicious Republican attempt to suppress minority and elderly voters who turned out in historical numbers for the 2008 elections. Almost one-fourth of African American voting age citizens and one-fifth of seniors do not have government- issued ID; yet new laws require them to pay for IDs in order to vote. This is a poll tax. We must inform our constituents that their fundamental right in a democracy is being infringed and fight back against this voter suppression epidemic.
