Jul 13, 2006- VOTING RIGHTS ACT

HON. MARCY KAPTUR
 OF OHIO
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WEDNESDAY, JULY 13, 2006

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I rise in very strong support of the renewal ofthe Voting Rights Act. 
Unfortunately, this great American struggle is not over. We have seen votersdenied their rights in recent elections as they have been incorrectly purgedfrom lists, their absentee votes not counted, and voting machine integrity andsecurity not assured. 

Ohioans have raised countless questions about today's new electronic votingsystems, their flawed security, their lack of transparency, their reliabilityand, yes, their very integrity. Who controls the security codes in thesemachines? How do we ensure that local boards of election and judges at theprecinct level are empowered to properly count votes and not the voting machinecompanies who know more about those machines and how to program them than thepeople conducting the elections themselves? 
Strong efforts have been made in Ohioto curb the authoritarianism of our Secretary of State, Kenneth Blackwell, ashe has purged people from lists in our State in particular precincts wherevoters are heavily minority. 

Mr. Chairman, we must pass the Voting Rights Act in its stronger form. Thestruggle is not over. As Reverend Joseph Lowery reminds us, keep hope alive,extend the Voting Rights Act.