July 30, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 135 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session
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Elections (Executive Session); Congressional Record Vol. 166, No. 135
(Senate - July 30, 2020)
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[Pages S4623-S4625] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] Elections Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, while I come to the floor this afternoon, I am kind of questioning whether the heat of Washington, DC, has gotten to people. Clearly, it has been a record July here, with 90- plus degree temperatures every day. But the notion that we should somehow cancel the election in the fall, I think, is either the heat of the moment or just clear wrongheadedness. I have been waiting for some time to come to floor to talk about our voting system and why it is so important to protect it and why now we should recognize that Americans, in having to deal with the coronavirus, have had the ability to vote and the ability to get there and the ability to be protected while they are voting. It has occurred in several elections that we need to be doing more. That is why I continue to support the efforts of our colleagues to make sure that we are doing everything we can to protect elections. I know that Leader McConnell has proposed the HEALS Act, but it doesn't contain any money for helping safe and secure elections in November. I know that the House bill, the Heroes Act, does help put money in place to keep polling workers safe during the pandemic. I know that we have other legislation, whether it is Senator Wyden's bill, which I am on, the Vote By Mail [[Page S4624]] Act, which would help eligible U.S. voters vote by mail, or whether it is other legislation, like that of my colleague Senator Klobuchar, to help back up paper ballots and create election security grants to help States improve their cybersecurity. I have talked many times at many hearings about our challenges with cybersecurity, and I know that all this legislation--my colleagues have been out here on the floor, and they have tried to bring them up, but to no avail. Well, I think instead of suggesting that the election be canceled, the President should be advocating that Congress pass aid and assistance to States to make sure that, during the COVID pandemic, things are in place so that poll workers can get to their jobs on time, that they can work effectively in doing that and protect their health and security and protect the health and security of the public. What I don't think he should do is to diminish the very important role that mail-in ballot voting has had in the United States of America. I say that coming from a State where we have mail-in ballots. The mail-in ballot system has grown over time to be the primary way in which we vote in the State of Washington. I say it is the primary way because I am sure there are ways that people can show up and vote at particular election offices, and there are probably other things. But, no, we don't have an election site. For those who love going to the polling places as a way to exercise their democracy and their rights, I appreciate that too. There is nothing better than participating in the democracy of an election by going there and casting a vote. But you also can increase the participation of the American public to vote by mail if you give them that opportunity. So it just happened to occur that on my way in today, I was actually trying to cast my own ballot; that is, I have my mail-in ballot for the August 4 election that is going to happen next week, and I want to make sure I fulfill my constitutional duty to vote in the next election. So I think it is a great opportunity to come to the Senate floor and put stock really to the myth that I think the President is continuing to create that you cannot vote by mail. Here is my mail-in ballot. Here is the ballot that is sent to my home address in Edmonds, WA. It basically has the date of the election on it and requires me to fill it out and return it. What is great about this ballot is this. First of all, I love mail-in voting. Even if I liked going to the polling place, what you now get enclosed, in addition to your ballot, is a voters' guide, which is sent by the secretary of State. It is pretty thick because candidates also give a statement about why they are running. Literally, the citizens of Washington, weeks in advance before getting this ballot, can sit and leaf through the various positions of candidates, and they also include websites. If you want to go to the candidate's website and look up more information about a candidate or see where they stand on an issue, it is a guide that helps you understand what your ballot is and who is on it. Who doesn't think that is a great way to inform the American people about voting? We have one of the highest voting rates in the Nation. As I say that, I know that there are States that are not mail-in ballot States that also have high numbers in Presidential election years, but the great thing about our vote-by-mail system is we have a pretty good participation by our public in off-year elections. The school board election or local county election or even a regional election gets the attention that I believe is important for democracy and for voter participation. I actually happened to start filling out my ballot this morning. I am not going to show everybody whom I voted for, but I will just show you what the front of the ballot looks like. I did vote already in the Governor's race. No doubt I voted for a Democrat. I am a Democrat. At the top of this ballot, once I am done, I get to tear off this device right here. It says: I voted. So there I go. I got a little boost to my democracy gene. I am so glad I participated. Here is the actual number of this ballot and an ID, and I tear that off. I tear that off and keep it. I keep this, and this is proof that I mailed this ballot. That is the great part of our system. Just for those who are really curious about this, I now have a privacy envelope. Now that I am done filling out my ballot, I stick it in this privacy envelope. Why do I do that? If somebody thinks that my privacy is violated because on the outside of this envelope I sign this signature, they separate these two things. This privacy envelope separates this and throws the ballots that are legitimate to be counted, and now no one knows exactly how I voted. I take this privacy envelope, and I stick it in the official document envelope that I am going to mail back. So I stick it in there, and guess what I have to do? I have to sign and date it. That signature is the validation of this system. It is the validation by my signature, the same as when I went into a voting booth, as we used to do, and signed my name. It is a validation against someone who is trying to create mischief with this system. It is what makes the vote-by-mail system work effectively in our State. I say that because our State has had many close elections, and yet no one has ever contested the outcome of the final election because we go through this system. Yes, we have had some very interesting incidents. We had a very close Governor's race once, where as they were recounting the ballots and counting through the official system, a gentleman owned up that he had voted for his wife who had died. He was so worried that he was going to get caught in this system that he owned up in advance and said: I am sorry. I might be one of the seven final votes in this decision, and I want to tell people I made a mistake. I know that she was so enthusiastic, but she passed away, and it was just a few days ago. So I went ahead and voted for her. So, no, that is not allowed under this system. This system works because we know who people are, and we have a validation of this system. This system allows us to participate and understand the election process. So I don't know why the President will not let America vote, only if they vote in a way that he thinks is--well, I am not sure, because now he is saying we should delay the election. He is saying it should be delayed. I am saying what the President should be doing to help the constitutional rights of American citizens is protecting their right to vote by helping to secure our election sites with enough workers, people working at the polls if they choose to go and do that, and also protecting our mail-in ballot system by allowing those States that want to pursue a mail-in ballot to make sure that those ballots work and are delivered on time so that they can be counted. I don't expect every State in the Union to adopt the same philosophy as the State of Washington, but clearly our State allows enough time for those ballots to get there. They allow so many days after the election. Why? Because we have a lot of military. We have 10 military bases, and we have a lot of people from Washington who are stationed overseas, and their ballots should not be made invalid just because they mailed them before the election but somehow, because of the travel time, they didn't get there in a timely fashion. So our State considers 7 days, the postmark after 7 days if it is delivered. I know that for some people this is all new. They don't want to move to this. I guarantee you, in 25 years we will all be voting by mail. This system will be in place, and we will be asking ourselves: Why did we drag our feet? I am at least heartened to hear that my Republican colleagues in the Senate have squashed the President's idea of canceling the election. Now what I want to hear is, Are they going to help us get the dollars and the systems in place to allow America to vote, to allow them to vote with confidence, not to constantly hear an undermining of that process but a support of that process, and not to undermine vote-by- mail, because it has worked in Washington? It has worked. I was elected in the year 2000 and only won by 2,229 votes--not a lot--cast out of the huge number of voters in our State. Yet people had confidence in that system. It is not as if the numbers didn't change in a recount here or there or somebody found a mistake here or there. It was that we had a system where you can find a mistake. [[Page S4625]] So stop trying to cancel the election based on the success of what has empowered more Americans to vote and be involved and be educated in our democracy. Let America vote, and let's get on with putting the securities in place that will help America get to the polling places in a secure fashion and get their ballots to the election officials in a timely manner. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
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