Ted Poe: “We started out in Fallujah that day. I was there with Mr. Shays. When the sun came up, we were wondering whether people…”

“We started out in Fallujah that day. I was there with Mr. Shays. When the sun came up, we were wondering whether people would come to the polls. The whole nation was shut down to vehicular traffic. The only vehicles on the roads were Iraqi security forces and our military. Nobody else could be driving, so everybody had to walk to the polls that day, sometimes up to 2 hours. After the sun came up, people started going to the polls. They walked. Not only did they walk, they took their families and their in- laws. They stood in line to vote. They voted. It was a very simple process. To mark the ballot, they put their finger in that ink that stayed on their finger for about 5 days. It was a mark. It was a sign not just that they voted, but it was a sign to the terrorists that if we see anybody with those purple fingers we are going to do harm to you. Yet the Iraqis when they finished voting, many of them, especially women who had never had the right to vote in their history, walked defiantly down the street holding up their hand and finger to show the world, especially the terrorists, that they were not going to be intimidated because freedom is that important. So we traveled all over the country that day. Late that night we visited with the interim president of Iraq. And he said to us about midnight in a very somber, emotional way, but serious, that this day in Iraq would never have taken place if it were not for the American youth who were there. He was serious.…”