Roy Cooper: “nothing is more important in a democracy than free and fair elections. Unfortunately, even in this, the People's House…”

“nothing is more important in a democracy than free and fair elections. Unfortunately, even in this, the People's House, there have been a series of abuses of the voting process by the Republican majority. How can we effectively champion democracy around the world if even here the Republican majority will not allow it to be practiced on the House floor? Just last week, because the Republican majority did not like the outcome of our usual 15-minute vote, they held the vote open for 30 minutes. Why? In order to change the outcome. We went from a fair and square 219 vote victory to a 210-210 tie due to Republican arm-twisting, while the whole world was watching on C-SPAN. If this were the only instance of Republican tyranny in this House, perhaps it could be excused. But just last year we sadly witnessed the longest vote in American history, just so they could change the outcome. Mr. Speaker, the Republicans need to play by the rules.”