Political Quotes

“Thank you so much for putting this together for us to be able to speak to the American people and speak to this body about voting rights, its importance, and the difficulties, that many groups are feeling disenfranchised from the voting system. The Voting Rights Act is probably one of the most important pieces of legislation that this Congress has put forward. It was passed in 1965 to prohibit discrimination in voting. According to the Department of Justice, the Voting Rights Act itself has been called the single most effective piece of civil rights legislation. That was back in 2009 when they said that. The Department of Justice has had a history of blocking racial gerrymandering, which was covered in section 4 of the act. In 2006, the Voting Rights Act was reaffirmed by an act of this Congress. The Senate voted for it 98-0, and the House voted 390-33 in favor of the Voting Rights Act, which lets us know that this is a fundamental right that most Americans believe. {time} 1815 But there are still these barriers that many groups feel. I know, Congressman Swalwell, you have gone around the country. You have heard from young people, you have heard from poor people, you have heard from those who live in rural areas, the difficulty they have in exercising this fundamental right. In the Virgin Islands, we are facing an even greater constitutional issue that we are bringing court cases to the United States about.…”