Mary Gay Scanlon: “I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, 20 years ago, I began volunteering to provide election…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, 20 years ago, I began volunteering to provide election protection services to voters after I saw political operatives try to block Swarthmore College students from voting by posting signs around their campus saying that they could not legally vote where they attended college. That was a lie. But we had to get a court order to take the signs down. Fast forward almost 20 years, and Haverford College students and their neighbors had to wage a multiyear campaign to get local officials to put a polling place on campus. The existing polling place was 1\1/2\ miles away, in another district entirely, and was inconvenient for students--most of whom had no cars--and the majority of residents alike. The college offered to provide free space and parking for the polling place, but students and neighbors were met with excuse after excuse. These excuses were textbook voter suppression tactics used to box out young voters from making their voices heard. If we have learned anything from this past election, it is that when we make it more convenient for eligible voters to vote, they do. That is why I am offering an amendment to H.R. 1 that requires States which offer early voting to make it available to polling places serving college campuses. It is high time we make our democracy, our elections, accessible to the generations who will inherit the world that we are legislating about. Mr.…”