Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Steve Scalise (1st District of Louisiana)
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) spoke on the House floor to highlight the SAVE America Act and how it will protect the integrity of American elections and prevent voter fraud.
Click here or the image above to view Leader Scalise’s full remarks.
Highlights from Leader Scalise’s remarks:“This is a bill that’s critically important to one of the most precious franchises in America, and that is that sacred right to vote, the right that so many gave their lives to preserve, to allow, to pass on to our next generation. And the importance of that vote is even more underscored when you recognize that, yes, there have been times where people have stolen your vote, Mr. Speaker… They’re stealing everybody’s vote if we allow people that aren’t legally eligible to vote to participate in elections. And so how can you best preserve that? One way is that when you’re registering to vote, you have to prove citizenship. It’s in this bill. Another is when you go vote, you just have to show your ID. This is not some convoluted idea, Mr. Speaker, but you hear the other side talking about it’s the end of the world.“[Democrats’] own leaders have referred to it as Jim Crow. It’s not the first time that they’ve used that phrase. They use that when the state of Georgia put an ID requirement on voting. They said it was going to be horrible, it was going to take away people’s rights, it was going to disenfranchise minority voters, Mr. Speaker, that’s what they said. But then what happened? We actually got history to go look at: After Georgia passed that law that was called every ridiculous name in the book, what we saw was record participation in elections. You actually had the University of Georgia that went and asked voters after that election, and a whooping, 0%, Mr. Speaker, of Black voters said that they had a poor experience going to the ballot. Over 72% said they had an excellent experience at the ballot.“[Democrats] would tell you if you actually increase the integrity of elections by requiring a picture ID, that somehow it’s going to suppress votes. The opposite happens, Mr. Speaker. Because what really does happen is voters now have confidence in the sanctity of elections. More people will participate because they know that somebody’s not going to be stealing their vote by showing up when they’re not supposed to be there, just by requiring a picture ID.“Americans have been asked about this: An overwhelming 83% of Americans are in favor of requiring a photo ID to vote. 83, that’s not Republicans, that’s all across the spectrum. Over 70% of Democrats support picture ID. 82% of Hispanic Americans support picture ID to vote. 76% of Black Americans support a picture ID to vote… If you want to ensure the sanctity of the vote, the Save America Act does that. You will see higher participation because Americans across all spectrums, Black, White, Hispanic, Republican, Democrat, Independent, will know that there is a higher likelihood that nobody there is showing up illegally to steal your vote if you’ve got the right to vote. One person, one vote: That’s the mantra that we all ought to embrace. The Save America Act gets us back to that great franchise of American democracy, and that is the right to vote. I would urge everybody to pass this bill over the Senate and then the Senate to get it to President Trump’s desk so we can strengthen American democracy.”