Jim Sensenbrenner: “following the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) is always a very tough act, but I would like to reiterate what he so…”

“following the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) is always a very tough act, but I would like to reiterate what he so eloquently said. We need the Voting Rights Act, and we need the Voting Rights Act because in the last 25 years the covered jurisdictions have not come clean. Let's look at Georgia. Since 1982, there have been 91 objections, 91 objections submitted by the Department of Justice. And since 2002, there have been seven voting rule changes that were withdrawn by the State because of DOJ objections. Texas, 105 objections imposed by DOJ since 1982, and 14 voting rule proposals were withdrawn by the State because of voting rights concerns in the last 4 years. Mississippi, 112 objections since 1982, and Federal observers have been sent to this State 14 times to monitor elections since 2002, most recently last year. Louisiana, 96 objection since 1982, eight Department of Justice objections to voting rules have been lodged since 2002, most recently in 2005, and 10 voting rule proposals withdrawn by the State in the last 4 years. South Carolina, 73 objections since 1982. North Carolina in the covered jurisdictions, 45 objections since 1982. And Alabama, 46 objections, and Federal observers have been assigned to the State 65 times since 2000 to monitor elections. Arizona, 17 objections since 2002, and Federal observers have been assigned to that State 380 times since 2000 to monitor elections, including 107 since 2004.…”