Chuck Schumer: “First of all, they cannot vote provisionally in the year 2002. That is in the bill now. I believe that was insisted on…”

“First of all, they cannot vote provisionally in the year 2002. That is in the bill now. I believe that was insisted on either by the Senator from Kentucky, Missouri, or somebody else, so they will be disenfranchised in this election. Second, I have seen it in the polling places in New York--maybe this is not true--I have seen it with first-time voters, the ballot officer says: Here, sign this paper and put it in the box, but it is not going to count on the machine. And there are arguments at the polling place, particularly from new immigrants who say: No, I want to be on the machine like everybody else because my vote is not counting there. They come from countries where they do not have the trust we have in government. They may come from a Communist country. They may come from a dictatorship. When they are forced to vote provisionally, they believe they are being treated as second-class citizens. Now we have put the provisional voting system in as a backup. I would not want to make it the norm because somebody does not have the ability to meet the requirements that most middle-class people could.”