Political Quotes

“I and others think the motor voter law has been an important step forward. We are concerned about the implication that some of the spirit and substance of it could be unraveled. That is why we are trying to stay at the table with the distinguished Senator from Missouri and work this out. I think if we can get an acceptance of the proposition that a signature should be valid to the ballot--if that basic proposition can be accepted, which is something we believe works in 27 States--I think we can do a great deal to reach out on the other concerns the Senator from Missouri has. He has raised them consistently. He understands the substance of this very well. We are trying to reach out to him in an effort to get this compromise. But what we need in return is to know that when people actually vote after they have gone through what I would call a real gauntlet of steps to make sure there are antifraud provisions at the front end, then let us have a signature be valid for the ballot, a system which works very well in our State. I will close by way of saying I think people are stunned by this. In the Senate special election in 1996, we tripled the rate of voter participation from the previous Senate special elections in this country. This is a system that has empowered voters.”