Ron Wyden: “often when the Senate passes something unanimously, it means that the matter is not so important. That is not the case…”

“often when the Senate passes something unanimously, it means that the matter is not so important. That is not the case today. The Voting Rights Act is about as important as it gets. Senators of both political parties deserve great credit for bringing this vitally needed legislation to the floor of the Senate today. I have come to salute those inside and outside the Senate for their work to bring this extraordinarily important issue before the country and before the Senate and to make an appeal to Senators and those outside the Chamber to work for more. In the past three successive elections--2000, 2002, and 2004--there were scores of accusations of voter intimidation, rigged voting machines, conflicts of interest among elected officials, and other serious electoral abuses. Many newspaper articles, State and Federal governmental investigations, private studies and scores of lawsuits have described in considerable detail the toll that election abuses now take on our democracy. As much as it is an accomplishment that the Senate will be voting to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act today, that law cannot cure many of the problems that we have seen in the last three election cycles. But there is a proven system that can reduce many of these abuses, and I hope in the days ahead the U.S. Congress will take steps to promote it. It is known as vote by mail. My State of Oregon adopted this election system back in 1998, with nearly 70 percent support of our State's voters.…”