John Lewis Quotes

I think there should be a literacy test and a poll tax for people to vote.

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.

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.

In Selma, Alabama, in 1965, only 2.1 percent of blacks of voting age were registered to vote. The only place you could attempt to register was to go down to the courthouse. You had to pass a so-called literacy test. And they would tell people over and over again that they didn't or couldn't pass the literacy test.

As long as there have been elections, there have been attempts to keep eligible people from voting.

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.

You've got to jump through all kinds of hoops to vote in America.

Americans need national voter registration reform to break down the barriers that discourage and discriminate.

In my home county—Lowndes County, Alabama--in 1964 Blacks were 80 percent of the population. Not one Black was registered to vote—Not one!!!

I was born in Decatur, was raised there, but I never in my life was permitted to vote there.

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.

Voter ID laws have a disproportionate impact on groups that lean democratic - including blacks, hispanics and students.

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.

A lot of states that pass voter ID laws have little to no evidence of in-person voter impersonation fraud, which is the only kind of fraud that voter ID laws could guard against.

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.

We have to continue to raise awareness as the Voting Rights Caucus... make sure people call into their state legislators. Let us know that they've decided they weren't going to vote because they heard it was a hassle.

Voter ID laws are the most potent form of voter suppression legislation.

The Supreme Court 2013 ruling that gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act set in motion what many feared: the subjection of minorities, seniors, and low-income Americans to unfair, punitive barriers preventing them from exercising their most basic right as American citizens.

No U.S. citizen is being kicked off any voter rolls.

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.

According to the U.S. Census, the most common reason people give for not voting is that they were too busy or had conflicting work or school schedules.

There are a number of Americans who shouldn't vote. The number is 57 percent, to judge by the combined total of Clinton and Perot ballots in the 1996 presidential election.

The United States Supreme Court has voted 6-3 that voter photo ID is constitutional.

No one questions the validity, the urgency, the essentiality of the Voting Rights Act.

Voting in Florida is like there’s some kind of goody in a box and you want to get it, but you’ve got to be persistent to get it.