Political Quotes

“I started in this business as a college student. Inspired by what was happening with the civil rights movement, I worked on the campaign to lower the voting age to 18 in my home State of Oregon and on the national campaign. After that, I had the privilege to work on a series of nonpartisan efforts to expand the franchise, to improve voting rights, to streamline access--bipartisan, not particularly controversial. It has been one of the biggest disappointments of my life to find that the issues that I worked on as a college student continue to vex us. But I am pleased today that we are in the process of advancing H.R. 1, the most significant democratic reform package in a generation. H.R. 1 will make it easier to vote, regardless of income, ability, geography, or race. It fights to end the dominance of big money in our politics and enacts tougher ethics standards to ensure public officials actually work for the public. I am particularly proud of three provisions that I helped incorporate into the bill from our Oregon experience. Oregon is a pioneer of vote by mail, and bringing that model nationwide paves the way for all States to be able to offer vote by mail and early voting that is secure and verifiable. It even saves money for State and local governments. We have a provision that has automatic voter registration for individuals interacting with State agencies. They are automatically registered to vote.…”