Discussion · Senate
Bernie Moreno Republican
“Our elections need stronger rules. We should require people to show an ID and prove they are citizens before they vote. Other countries do this to keep their elections secure, and there is no good reason why we should not.”
“Democrat response? Hearing none. The other objection that we get is our elections are already secure. Our elections are very secure. But doesn’t it kind of override common sense to say: If you are not having to prove you are a citizen to vote, if you are not having to show your ID, if we just automatically mail out ballots without really knowing that that person is there and that person didn’t request it, aren’t we opening the door to having that lack of integrity of our elections? I will tell you a quick anecdotal story. I was asked to be an election monitor by the Governor of Colombia in a recent Presidential election. I knew as much about the Colombian election as any American, meaning nothing. So I went down there, and they require all the things I just talked about. They require everybody to be a citizen of Colombia to vote in Colombian elections. They require that ID to be shown. They actually have facial recognition scanners and fingerprint readers in case there is a question whether that picture matches you. You know, like, if you are the Realtor that has the picture of you 40 years ago, sometimes it is like: Is that really you? So they have the facial recognition, the fingerprint, paper ballots. So I was huddling with the registrar afterwards. And, of course, we are in Colombia; so we are speaking Spanish. And I said to him: Well, what happens if somebody doesn’t show up with a voter ID, like, his ID? What do you do? And we were having a pretty good conversation until I asked that question. And he turned to his assistant and in Spanish says: I think the Senator has lost his Spanish because I don’t understand what he is asking me. And his assistant repeated it. And he completely looked at me like I was a knucklehead and said: Why would you possibly let somebody vote that doesn’t have an ID to prove who they are? In other words, the question was so ridiculous that he thought it had to be a language barrier. Is there any way to justify the other position, since our colleagues--who were just here. They all ran off. During your speech, the majority leader ran through--is there any justification for not having to do this?”
-
Speech in the House
Signal 4 of 100
Much of this statement went to praise, blame, greetings, routine procedure or general stories rather than reasons, requests or specific points.
See full analysis
Democrat response? Hearing none. The other objection that we get is our elections are already secure. Our elections are very secure. But doesn’t it kind of override common sense to say: If you are not having to prove you are a citizen to vote, if you are not having to show your ID, if we just automatically mail out ballots without really knowing that that person is there and that person didn’t request it, aren’t we opening the door to having that lack of integrity of our elections? I will tell you a quick anecdotal story. I was asked to be an election monitor by the Governor of Colombia in a recent Presidential election. I knew as much about the Colombian election as any American, meaning nothing. So I went down there, and they require all the things I just talked about. They require everybody to be a citizen of Colombia to vote in Colombian elections. They require that ID to be shown. They actually have facial recognition scanners and fingerprint readers in case there is a question whether that picture matches you. You know, like, if you are the Realtor that has the picture of you 40 years ago, sometimes it is like: Is that really you? So they have the facial recognition, the fingerprint, paper ballots. So I was huddling with the registrar afterwards. And, of course, we are in Colombia; so we are speaking Spanish. And I said to him: Well, what happens if somebody doesn’t show up with a voter ID, like, his ID? What do you do? And we were having a pretty good conversation until I asked that question. And he turned to his assistant and in Spanish says: I think the Senator has lost his Spanish because I don’t understand what he is asking me. And his assistant repeated it. And he completely looked at me like I was a knucklehead and said: Why would you possibly let somebody vote that doesn’t have an ID to prove who they are? In other words, the question was so ridiculous that he thought it had to be a language barrier. Is there any way to justify the other position, since our colleagues--who were just here. They all ran off. During your speech, the majority leader ran through--is there any justification for not having to do this?