Kerry is also an original co-sponsor of the Count Every Vote Act – a comprehensive bill to make all the changes so desperately needed to address barriers to voting – whether it’s intimidation, disinformation or a lack of voting machines. This legislation is the gold standard for electoral reform. It would require clear nationwide standards for provisional ballots, same-day voter registration, a paper trail for voting machines and a ratio of voting machines per number of voters.

Mr. President, all over the world, the United States has always stood out as the great exporter of democratic values – in the Philippines where we stood up against the undemocratic regime of Marcos and stood for free elections; in South Africa, where we fought for years to break the back of apartheid and empower all citizens to vote; most recently in Afghanistan and Iraq where we rejoiced as many voted for the first time in their lives; and in the Ukraine where the world turned to the United States to monitor elections and ensure that the right to vote was protected.

Yet our attempts to spread freedom around the world can only be successful if our democracy works here at home.

We are having this debate today because the bedrock right to vote wasn’t just given to everyone, it was earned in blood, in sweat – and it was won by courageous citizens who risked their lives to register voters, who marched, who faced Bull Connor’s police dogs, who faced the threat of lynchings and some who even died fighting to open up the polls and make the right to vote real for every American.

We are having this debate today because their work isn’t done, and too many Americans still face too many obstacles when they try to exercise their vote. Every eligible voter must be able cast his or her ballot without fear, without intimidation, and with the knowledge that their voice will be heard. These are the foundations of our democracy and freedom.

By reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act, we are taking an important step forward towards fulfilling the promise of “one person, one vote.”

For many, this struggle is personal. Some of my colleagues in both the House and the Senate have been on the frontlines of the civil rights movement and worked to pass the original Voting Rights Act in 1965. Without the selfless and courageous efforts of people we all admire like our friend Congressman John Lewis – whose image is seared into our minds, who remembers what it was like to march across a bridge and help move a nation to a better place – who knows what it meant to put his life on the line to march for voting rights – without him and those who marched with him our country would never have had the strength or the courage to enact this landmark legislation. Without the leadership of legislators like my good friend the senior Senator from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy, the United States Congress would never have enacted this landmark legislation.

Despite the great strides since the Voting Rights Act was originally enacted, we have a lot of work to do. Thankfully, this is an issue on which Democrats and Republicans agree. I was pleased last week that each attempt to weaken the Voting Rights Act in the House of Representations was defeated. We need to reauthorize each of the three expiring provisions: Section Five’s pre-clearance provisions, bi-lingual assistance requirements, and authorization for poll-watching.

Where would the citizens of Georgia be—particularly low-income and minority citizens—if they were required to produce a government-issued identification or pay $20 every 5 years in order to vote? That is what would have happened without Section Five of the Voting Rights Act. Georgia would have successfully imposed what the judge in the case called “a Jim Crow-era poll tax.” Does anyone really want to flirt with the idea of returning to the time when states charged people to exercise their right to vote? That is not the America that I know. It's not the America that you know. And it is certainly not the America that we aspire to be.

This morning President Bush addressed the 97th Annual Convention of the NAACP after a five year absence. I am pleased that President Bush has ended his boycott of the NAACP and announced his intention to sign the Voting Rights Act into law. This is an important first step, but it will not fix all the problems or remove all the barriers that prevent people from voting today. It’s not enough just to show up at the NAACP or reauthorize the Voting Rights Act. We have to fully fund the Help America Vote Act, which the President’s budget consistently undercuts. We have to pass the Count Every Vote Act and ensure that voters have a verifiable paper trail. We need to make it easier for Americans to register to vote and cast provisional ballots. As my friend Senator Obama warned the NAACP convention yesterday, it is not enough to talk the talk – you have to walk the walk.

President Bush has committed to signing the Voting Rights Act. I hope this is just the first step. I hope he continues to work with Congress to ensure that every vote cast in America is counted; that every precinct in America has a fair distribution of voting machines; that voter suppression and intimidation are un-American and must be ceased; and that any voter can register to vote and vote on the same day.

I support this reauthorization, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

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