NORTON DRAWS D.C. VOTING RIGHTS INTO HISTORIC DEBATE ON THE OHIO VOTE - January 6, 2006

Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton participated today in the debate in the House and Senate concerning the official objection to the certification of the Ohio electoral vote because of voting irregularities. The objection, raised by Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio, was not brought to challenge the election of the President but because it was the only available vehicle to raise issues that were apparent in the many voting irregularities nationwide. These irregularities include provisional ballots that do not count in the final vote, long lines due to insufficient voting machines, particularly in minority, low income and rural areas, voter intimidation and suppression, confused and partisan election officials, the absence of national standards, and many others that have been reported.

In the course of debating the issue, Norton spoke of the even more serious voting rights issue facing the District. “The long lines in the District were especially poignant because citizens waited for hours to vote for a Member of Congress who herself could not cast a vote for them in this House,” she said. The full text of Norton’s speech follows.

“If we are the democracy we say we are, we must show it by taking on the astonishing problems in our national system of elections that can no longer be blinked away. Ohio’s often brazen irregularities bring forward this debate, but the Buckeye state is only the poster child for the nationwide system of voting that has been discredited in the eyes of millions of voters. I watched the long lines nationwide and here in the District on Election Day with both exhilaration and pain. Exhilaration that finally we were getting what we asked for, with so much enthusiasm for voting that people were standing in line the way they do for million dollar lottery tickets. Pain that the long lines would surely discourage many voters, particularly first time voters, people of color, young people, and many others who wanted to believe that voting could matter in their lives. The long lines in the District were especially poignant because citizens waited for hours to vote for a Member of Congress who herself could not cast a vote for them in this House.

“Ohio’s close and contentious vote speaks for the country about virtually all the problems of the last election-- from voting machine access to voter intimidation and the absence of national standards for the basics. It will take time and bipartisan determination to make us proud of our elections. Until then, one reform could begin the process of restoring confidence in our elections. If all else fails- voting machines, polling place controversy, confused or partisan election officials- a provisional ballot that, if valid, will count can help heal voting flaws, until we enact a real cure. We have got a fail safe for almost everything else -- from bullet proof vests to back-ups for computers. Let’s fix our system this year, beginning with fail safes for voting to save our democracy.”