Willie Hefner: “I have been around this for a long, long while, and I can remember when we kept people from voting because we had…”

“I have been around this for a long, long while, and I can remember when we kept people from voting because we had something called the poll tax. And most of us could not afford it, especially sharecroppers. And we were sharecroppers, and some of our black neighbors could not afford to vote. We have talked about numbers here. My good friend from California said what we want to make sure is that every vote counts. Votes are not counted in the District of California. The gentlewoman from California is being harassed. And if we took the 300 votes or 400 votes, throw them out, she still won a majority. She is still the winner. In politics, that is all that matters, is getting the majority of the vote. The gentlewoman is being denied the vote, in my opinion, simply because she beat one of the real radical exhibitionists that has ever been in this House. Some Members do not like it. As for the gentleman that said it was the Democrats, he was the one that sent out a press release accusing me of missing votes when my sister-in-law had died and I was not even here. So I just wanted to make that clear. This is a charade that should not be taking place. It does not become this House and it does not become us as the most respected governing body on the face of the earth, and we should be ashamed of our actions that are taking place today.”