Sherrod Brown

If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it adjourn under the previous order. There being no objection, the Senate, at 6:46 p.m., adjourned until Tuesday, May 8, 2012, at 10 a.m…

The first vote tomorrow will be at noon on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S. 2343, the Stop Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Act. ____________________

It was the right stance.

But our poll workers actually work harder during the 13 hours.

Why should we take away that local control?

I do not agree with that. There are plenty of ways, if you are a local election official in that county--

The legislature took away that discretion by HB 194.

That has to be followed. It is not unconstitutional. It does not violate any laws. That is perfectly to do.

There is a continuing shortage of poll workers.

Unfortunately, HB 194 and related changes in our voting system take us in the wrong direction.

This will affect somewhere in the neighborhood of 105,000 people.

This is essentially giving poll workers discretion to discriminate.

Today, instead of protecting the right to vote, we have seen shameless attempts to undermine it.

As a State, over a period of decades, Ohio legislators undertook a bipartisan effort to help Ohioans vote more easily.

HB 194 dismantles a number of common-sense, effectiveness, and, I underscore, bipartisan measures that assist people with voting.

That is the way the Senate does things, by the way.

Ohio's new law, HB 194, threatens to make it harder for tens of thousands of Ohioans to vote.

These laws may have different provisions in each State, but together they threaten to disenfranchise millions of eligible voters in the next election.

Absentee voting certainly opens up the door to fraud.

We must never forget that democracy exists not for the benefit of elected officials or election officials, but for the benefit of all of us, we the people of this country.

It is a solution in search of a problem. It is not something we need to do.

These efforts under the guise of preventing fraud and cutting spending are part of a cynical effort to impede access to the ballot.

There is perhaps no right in America more essential to our democracy than the right to vote.

I would like to see a uniform day of voting that we could all vote on the same day, as is done in Mexico.

I fear that is happening right now with the uncertainty that Ms. Davis has talked about.