Wisconsin State Senator Lena Taylor's speech during debate on Assembly Bill 7 during the May 17, 2011 senate floor session. She is arguing in favor of a motion to return the bill to committee.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Mr. President, I rise to say that the bill should be sent back to committee, for not just all of the reasons that have been stated that are so true, but just to reiterate some items that I said before that I think are important measures.
One of the things that the senator from the 9th spoke about is that this bill has been crafted based on what they've done in Indiana. And it particular stated that what they've done in Indiana has passed the muster of the court and the court has shown that it is not unconstitutional. Well, I think a little closer reading would show that that's not necessarily true. That's not necessarily our particular situation. As a matter of fact, what the court stated, the court made it clear that such laws could still be challenged by particular groups and individuals burdened by the law. Like elderly persons born out of state, persons who because of economic or other personal limitations may find it difficult to secure a copy of their birth certificate, homeless people. Those are groups that we have been talking about all evening. It also went on to say that the photo ID law, a photo ID law that burdens voters more than Indiana could potentially also be challenged. The high courts of other states have also shown that their state constitutions protect voter rights more than federal law. Indiana makes it a blanket "you need an ID, you can have access to an ID." They don't do the "sign the poll-book". They don't do some of the additional burdens that we have put in place.
I guess maybe there's a part of me as a lawyer that should say thank you for making it worse than Indiana, so that it can be challenged. But what I think I'm going to say is thank you, for doing it in front of the students, the next generation of leaders. Who look at you today, on the outer circle, as you take back not once century, like the senator from the 25th said, at least a couple. That the history that we constantly try to walk away from: Jim Crow and the remnants of slavery and racism. That you take us back, arrogantly and confidently and without any blink of the eye. I'm so glad that the young people from your districts see you for who you are. I'm so glad that they hear the argument that says that students will have to go through unnecessary burdens. That seniors will have to go through unnecessary burdens. Not to go to the water park. Not to just have a good time, but for a constitutional right to vote.
See, in this building, since this administration and this GOP leadership has taken over, we have denied access to this building and we have even denied elected officials--not in this house, but in the other house--the ability to vote. Elected officials were denied the ability to vote by ramming it through rapidly. But now today students, leaders of tomorrow, people from the districts of the senators who sit before you. I am so glad, Mr. President, that they are here to see us deny Wisconsin citizens the right to vote. To not take our motto of Lady Forward, but instead to take us backwards.
The part that I'm excited about is that it's not just students in college, it's senate scholars, those in high school. Who will be able to vote really soon. Who will be able to say "Well, I know it was called a voter ID bill, but instead it went so much further than just an ID." They've probably learned much more, and have heard much more about voter suppression, disenfranchisement, restrictions, than they've wanted to.
But I want to leave us with another piece that I think is really important. Whether you're reading from the New York Times, where it says [in an April 26 editorial] that "Republicans spread fear of a non-existent flood of voter fraud... the largest legislative effort to scale back voting rights in a century." Or whether it's Florida: "The burdens of Florida's misguided election bill will fall disproportionately on the shoulders of low-income minority voters, renters, students: eligible voters that already face the biggest hurdles to vote." [Brennan Center for Justice]
How amazing that no matter where you turn, where these bills are coming up, that the talking points are the same. That those that are affected are the same. I'm convinced that the challenge of the Georgia law which established that a fee between twenty and thirty-five dollars for a photo ID card, and included a fee waiver. I'm convinced that when the district court blocked that law, saying that the fees turned it into an unconstitutional poll tax, that we will be similar to Georgia. But they had to go and fix it, and we have some signs of the things that they fixed.
But they did and undertook a significant voter education and outreach measure. We must do that. Eight months to inform the entire state is not significant. It's not thorough. It's not the forward motto that we stand for. There's no question that this bill needs to go back to committee. That it's not ready for prime-time. And at the very least, it does not support the values of Wisconsin.
I said earlier that the fraud that our Attorney General and the District Attorney for my county spoke about in articles, none of that, even though the senator from the first has suggested otherwise, none of that is addressed by this bill. It was double-voting, and ID won't do that. And the senator from the first even said something about felons. An ID, unless we're going to start making you wear an "F" on your forehead or on your driver's license—I mean, we're going backwards, will we be going back to that?—there's no way that an ID identifies that.
We should be good stewards. We should be stately people who encourage citizen engagement. We should want to see our citizens voting, engaged. We should be encouraging our young people to be informed and to vote. This bill doesn't do that. This bill needs to go back to committee so that we can make this bill a reflection of the way that we do things in Wisconsin. Way before any of us, including even the senator from the twenty-sixth was alive, back in the 1800s we did the right thing in Wisconsin for women, and for people of color. And we expanded the right to vote. Let us not, in 2011, go backwards and disenfranchise people. And as stated in the article from the New York Times let us not be in a place where we are creating legislation that is the largest legislative effort in the history of our state—and as the senator from the thirty-first stated, potentially our nation—to scale back voting rights in a century.
The speech is available on youtube, excerpted by @nicknicemadison.
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