Eddie Bernice Johnson Quotes

I don't think everyone should vote. If you have to be dragged into the polls, carried into the polls and smelling salts have to be used, you probably shouldn't be voting. However, we shouldn't be putting up barriers to voting that target certain groups.

The most significant civil rights problem is voting. Each citizen's right to vote is fundamental to all the other rights of citizenship and the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 make it the responsibility of the Department of Justice to protect that right.

We have a problem with our democracy when you have election officials deliberately trying to take away the fundamental right to vote in this country in the 21st century.

It is clear that the photo ID requirement is not a solution to a problem but is instead a political ploy to prevent traditionally disenfranchised populations from voting for the candidates of their choice.

Parts of the Voting Rights Act are due to expire next year if Congress doesn't extend them, including the section that guarantees that voting rights will be protected by the federal government.

So here we are, just two months away from the election, with more and more examples that modern day Jim Crowe laws are alive and well in the state of Florida.

In the past the great majority of minority voters, in Ohio and other places that means African American voters, cast a large percentage of their votes during the early voting process.

Americans of our own time - minority and majority Americans alike - need the continued guidance that the Voting Rights Act provides. We have come a long way, but more needs to be done.

Strong efforts have been made in Ohio to curb the authoritarianism of our Secretary of State, Kenneth Blackwell, as he has purged people from lists in our State in particular precincts where voters are heavily minority.

Voter caging and voter ID laws exist to disfranchise voters.

Voting is a Constitutional right. Absent any evidence of fraud, all Americans have a protected right to vote, be they rich or poor, black, Hispanic or white, people who live in a big city or in remote rural areas.

The Voting Rights Act is a voter protection act, not a candidate or incumbent protection act.

It seems to me there has been some systematic disenfranchisement of voters … because people haven’t cared enough to spend the money to have good voting systems and voter education.

… we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban—read African American voter-turnout machine.

Officials who wish to deny minorities the right to vote adopt one tactic. When a lawsuit finally gets decided that the tactic is unconstitutional or otherwise illegal, the official just switches tactics…. Election enforcement lawsuits are different and demand more [than typical lawsuits.]

Voter suppression is wrong even if it’s not racist. Any legislation that exists for the sole purpose of making it more difficult for an otherwise eligible person to vote is unethical. It’s straightforward cheating.

Here are people who murdered folks who were trying to help people get a chance to vote and you’re coming up here to recognize them as members of the Democratic Party when they won’t even say that they will support the nominee…

Voting is crucial, and I don't give a damn how you look at it: there are efforts to stop people from voting. That's not right. This is not Russia. This is the United States of America.

It is a travesty for anyone who is elected to office, who serves in an elective office, to engage in voter suppression.

Voting shouldn't be a challenge. It should be as easy and accessible as possible. We shouldn't require forms of ID that folks don't have. We shouldn't restrict days or hours that allow working people a chance to both do their job and exercise their democratic right, and we damn well shouldn't be throwing up new obstacles midstream.

During my time in the Texas State Legislature, I witnessed firsthand the lack of evidence behind the rampant claims of voter fraud and the obstacles voters would face if the 2011 photo Voter ID were put in place.

As an organizer in the most underrepresented communities in my state, I have felt the frustration that so many voters must feel when other states limit polling locations, require photo IDs, and put unnecessary barriers in front of voters.

You can turn on Fox News almost any day and see some fictional story about voter fraud, the whole purpose of which is to limit voting by the poor, the elderly, college students and minorities.

I've heard Donald Trump say some pretty unhinged things. I've heard them over and over and over again. But nothing is more dangerous to our democracy than his attacks on mail-in voting in the middle of a pandemic.

Let America Vote will make the case for voting rights by exposing the real motivations of those who favor voter suppression laws.