OrangeParkJournal.com

Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fl) spoke before the state legislature today and presented his ideas for election reform. Here’s the text of his released statement:

This morning in Tallahassee, I spoke before our state Senate on a subject that has become all too familiar to Florida—the right to vote and to have that vote count as intended.

I commended the Florida Senate and Governor Crist for banning touch-screen voting machines; last fall, I filed legislation in the U.S. Senate requiring that no vote for federal office be cast on a touch-screen voting machine starting in 2012. I also proposed a system of six rotating primaries from March to June in each presidential election year.

But these actions are just a beginning.
When I return to Washington, I will propose a legislative package that calls for early voting in every state, allows every qualified voter in every state the option of casting an absentee ballot, gives grants to states that develop pilot projects for mail-in balloting and secure Internet voting, and eliminates machines that don’t produce a voting paper trail.

And, I will propose that we amend the U.S. Constitution to abolish the Electoral College, giving citizens direct election of their president by popular vote.

Let’s not forget: it was more than 230 years ago that our Founding Fathers declared that all men are created equal. But the country still had to wait 94 years beforeformer slaves were given the vote. And it took another 50 years before women in America were allowed to vote.

This country cannot wait that long to fix the flaws we still see in our election system. The blessings of liberty cannot wait. The time for reform is now.

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