'Are Pharmacies Racist? The Airline Industry -- Is That Racist?': Mike Lee Mocks Voter ID Opposition

some of our Witnesses suggest and some of our members seem to agree at least in part that um requiring of an identification form a photo ID is somehow racially discriminatory raises all sorts of questions in my mind is our entire Health Care System racist or pharmacies races the airline industry is that racist the TSA what about bars we go into a bar I mean some people consider a form of flattery I guess if they get carded but um you know it it happens and they're required to ask for IDs many of them do as a matter of policy but universities one thing I've learned about all colleges and universities these days they all they all issue a student ID and they have photos on them make sure that the Privileges associated with that University aren't being used and properly by someone else what are like what about Major League Baseball the NFL or all other event organizers who require you to show an ID when you go to pick up your tickets are they all racist and that would be news to me certainly not racist to require someone to prove who they are in order to gain access to government benefits of one sort or another it's never been deemed such so why all of a sudden are we calling it that when people are just wanting to vote now some people will say on the other side is oh well it's different it's the right right to vote we've got to have as many people voting as possible well hang on just a minute if you don't have some process of verifying that the person is who the person says he or she is then what happens well what happens is that you have a very significant risk and someone will vote when they're not supposed to when they're not allowed or somebody will vote multiple times perhaps many multiple times when that happens you have disenfranchisement you have disenfranchisement of those who are entitled to vote so if these things are racist then that's news to me and we've got a much bigger problem with all these industries that I've just mentioned but of course none of this is true because this is absolute nonsense we have the ability in fact we have a duty not we because we're not the ones who control uh voting roles that is up to the States Constitution goes out of its way to make sure that that's up to the states the states have the obligation they have the opportunity they have the duty to make sure that there is confidence in our voting system and that's why they do it Mr Von spakovski uh hr4 uh the John Lewis voting rights advancement Act not only creates updated formal formulas for jurisdictional pre-clearance but it also creates a new form of pre-clearance triggered by practices that many progressives fear loathe in fact now ironically these practices are widely popular with voters across the political Spectrum right which raises all sorts of questions is that progressives might fear them but let's set that aside for a minute because they are and they're popular specifically because they Ensure the the integrity and the potency and the legitimacy of each ballot they included among other things uh voter ID requirements and efforts to maintain the Integrity of voter registration files to make sure that someone who has died or moved out moved out of state or or uh otherwise is ineligible to vote in the jurisdiction in question doesn't vote and thereby disenfranchise those who are entitled to vote in that jurisdiction how would these practice based these practice based pre-clearance provisions in hr4 ensure that most if not all voting jurisdictions in the United States are forced into the even more burdensome jurisdiction-based pre-clearance process well the problem with this practice space pre-clearance particularly the one applying to the cleanup of voter rolls is the I know the attitude of the career people inside the voting section Marine Reardon has talked about it and they oppose almost any cleanup of voter rolls any attempt to make sure they're accurate you can see this in all the lawsuits that have been filed you'll recall that a lawsuit in Ohio went all the way to the Supreme Court the Houston decision and this they're neutral aren't they there you can trust them can't you yeah I think so right uh but but here's the thing that people forget about this whole claim that somehow uh maintaining voter registration systems leads to discrimination first of all states are strictly regulated in what they can do by the national voter registration act it sets out very strict rules on what you can do to clean up voter rolls and second this constant claim I hear that oh you know cleaning up overalls taking off people who have died or moved away it it disenfranchises voters well that also ignores the fact that this Congress passed in 2002 the help America vote act 92 Senators voted in favor of it that put in a provisional balloting provision so even if a state makes a mistake you know they remove somebody from the voter roll because they think they've moved out of state and they don't all that person when they show up at their polling place and they're told listen you're not on the list we thought you had moved they are federally entitled to a provisional ballot they simply have to declare no I'm eligible I was registered they are given a provisional ballot election officials then investigate and if a mistake was made their ballot counts so people are not going to be disenfranchised even if a mistake is made Mr chairman I see a lot of times expert I've got one follow-up question I'd like to ask Miss Reardon if that's okay uh if it's quick yeah we I should tell the members we have a vote underway right now understood uh Miss Reardon uh under section two of the Voting Rights Act still fully intact still fully in Tech regardless of whether this ever becomes law is there any reason why that's inadequate to address these there are any argument to be made that the section two violations going on are so rampant so out of control uh as Congress concluded they were at the time of the original passage of sections four and five that they can't keep up with this I I don't believe so section two um especially the way that it has been enlarged um to include and effect portion to section two really targets um intentional discrimination as well and that is consistent with Shelby um and so although there's been some testimony here that section two is expensive and it's long it is certainly within you know the powers of the 15th Amendment and it also provides doj what it needs and that is to target areas within the United States that are discriminating as opposed to making everybody in the United States subject to section five when there's no basis for it um I will say that doj since the Shelby decision has only brought approximately six section two cases their last one being the one that they filed in Georgia I would say that's pretty indicative that there's not rampant discrimination within the United States because doj is certainly not they are filing lawsuits thank you I will yield to Senator Klobuchar for her questions and she will chair uh in my absence I'm going to go vote and I'll be running right back and then if she has to leave and I'm not back if she could be able to

Channel: Forbes Breaking News

Views: 322,499

Keywords: Sen. Mike Lee, voter ID, Democrats

Id: g1Fbh_Vztxc

Length: 8min 20sec (500 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 22 2021