The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“VOTING RIGHTS” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S5446-S5447 on Sept. 8, 2011.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
VOTING RIGHTS
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, this afternoon, we held a hearing in the Constitutional Subcommittee on the Senate Judiciary Committee on new voting laws that are being passed in many States. It was one of the first hearings on Capitol Hill on the subject, and I thank you very much for attending as a member of the subcommittee.
We had an array of witnesses, starting with Members of the Senate and Members of the House of Representatives, expressing various points of view on this issue. What we discussed was the new laws in States that are establishing new standards for voting in America. It is essential for us on this subcommittee, with our jurisdiction and responsibility, to focus on this issue of voting rights.
As has been said so many times, there is no more important right in America. The right to vote is a right people have given their lives for.
As we look at the checkered history of the United States, we find that though we honor the right to vote, from the very beginning, we have compromised that principle. We started off with requirements of property ownership. We didn't allow women to vote for so long. African Americans were not given that opportunity for decades. Over the years, we have had as many as 10 different constitutional amendments focusing on extending the right to vote.
When we get to the heart of a democracy, it is about voting. That is why these new State laws are so important and so important for us to reflect on.
Requiring a photo ID for most of us at this station in life or who are in business, it seems like a very common request. We present our IDs when we get on airplanes and in so many different places. But for a substantial percentage of Americans, they don't carry a government-
issued ID. They live their lives without the need of one. Now State laws are requiring these IDs for people before they can vote. It sounds like a minor inconvenience, and for many people it would be just that. But for others, it could be more.
If there is not a good opportunity for a person to acquire an ID without cost, in a fashion that doesn't create hardship, many people will be discouraged from voting. They will just think: This is another obstacle in the path of exercising my right to vote, and maybe I will stay home.
That is not good for a democracy. We should be leaning in the other direction, trying to expand the electorate, expand the voting populous in this country, expand the voice of the voters in this country, not the opposite. Many of these State laws in the seven States that have now put in photo IDs create significant hardships.
We have a problem in Wisconsin, for example, and I have written to the Governor asking him to give me his impression of how he will deal with these issues.
One out of five people in Wisconsin do not have an ID; 177,000 elderly people in Wisconsin do not have the ID required by law; more than one-third of young people don't have an ID. Particularly among African Americans under the age of 24, 70 percent do not have the ID necessary to vote in Wisconsin. So, you say, they have their chance. The election will not be until next year, they have plenty of time.
It turns out that in the State of Wisconsin there is only one Division of Motor Vehicles Office that is open on a weekend in the entire State. That to me seems unconscionable and unacceptable. We need to take a hard look at this and the first stop will be the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.
They asked me after the hearing today, what are we going to do next? They said what we will do next is follow the law. The law says the Department of Justice has to weigh each of these changes, whether it is voter registration in Florida or whether it is the voter ID or the limitation on early voting and decide whether this violates the basic standards of the Voting Rights Act. They have 60 days to do so after the law is enacted.
I have spoken to the division, Civil Rights Division. It is my impression they are going to move on this in a timely fashion. This is a critical issue. I am afraid it is way too political. The forces behind change in virtually every State--not every one but virtually every State--have come from the same political side of the equation. It is not lost on those of us who do this for a living what is at stake here. If certain people are denied access to the polls, discouraged to vote, and those people turn out to be historically those voting on one side or the other, it is going to create not only a personal hardship but a distortion in the election outcome and I hope we can sincerely work together on the Judiciary Committee and with the Department of Justice to resolve this.
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