Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr11/wh930520.zip/05-20C.TXT

Internet Message Format | 1993-06-02 | 9KB

From @lex-luthor.ai.mit.edu:[e-mail]  Thu May 20 16:27:04 1993
Date: Thu, 20 May 1993 16:08-0400
From: The White House <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail],
Subject: TRanscript of President's Remarks at Motor-Voter Signing

                           THE WHITE HOUSE

                    Office of the Press Secretary
_____________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                    May 20, 1993

                       REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
                          AT SIGNING OF THE
               NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION ACT OF 1993

                            The South Lawn

11:32 A.M. EDT


         THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  Joel, thank you
for the t-shirt.  In a few moments I'll give our bill-signing pens,
but I'd rather have the t-shirt.  (Laughter.)

         Getting to know the young people across this country,
beginning in New Hampshire who pushed the motor voter bill, was one
of the most rewarding parts of the 1992 campaign.  But the effort
that we come here to celebrate today has a long and venerable
heritage.  A few moments ago, you heard the voice of President
Johnson crossing the chasm of time back to 1965 as he signed the
Voting Rights Act into law.  As a southerner and as President, his
words have special significance to me.

         During my childhood, no family's dinner table, no church
congregation, no community, and no place of work was immune from the
searing struggle for civil rights.  To hear Johnson's voice is to
make vivid for me once again those difficult, yet glorious years of
struggle -- difficult and terrible because so many people gave their
lives moving the stone of freedom up the side of a mountain; glorious
because the year's of contention eventually gave way to an overdue
seasons of reconciliation and renewal, and gave our region and our
country a second chance to fulfill our promise.

         The victory we celebrate today is but the most recent
chapter in the overlapping struggles of our nation's history, to
enfranchise women and minorities, the disabled and the young, with
the power to affect their own destiny and our common destiny by
participating fully in our democracy.  When blacks and women won the
right to vote; when we outlawed the poll tax and literacy test; when
the voting age was lowered to 18; and when finally we recognized the
rights of disabled Americans, it was because the forces of change
overcame the indifference of the majority and the resistance by the
guardians of the status quo.

         And who prevailed?  Brave people, working at the grass
roots, impatient with an always imperfect democracy, and dedicated to
widening the circle of liberty to encompass more and more of our
fellow citizens.

         I have said many times in many places that in this
country we don't have a person to waste.  Surely the beginning of
honoring that pledge is making sure the franchise is extended to and
used by every eligible American.  (Applause.)  Today we celebrate our
noble tradition by signing into law our newest civil rights law, the
National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which all of us know and
love as motor voter.

         And extraordinary coalition of organizations, many of
whom played historic roles in our expanding democratic rights, joined
many years ago with the hope that they would see this day come.  I'm
honored to share this podium with representatives with three fighters
for freedom -- the NAACP, the League of Women Voters, and Human
Serve.  I want to pay special tribute to Disabled And Able To Vote,
to Project Vote and to Rock The Vote, and literally, the scores of
other groups for whom the goal of full voter participation has been a
durable and lasting dream.  I want to pay special tribute to the
young people who lobbied me personally for motor voter and who voted
with renewed energy and conviction for their own futures in the
election last November.

         They all labored hard because this bill was necessary.
As many as 35 percent of otherwise eligible voters in our nation are
not registered.  And the failure to register is the primary reason
given by eligible citizens for their not voting.  The principle
behind this legislation is clear:  Voting should be about discerning
the will of the majority, not about testing the administrative
capacity of a citizen.

         The state of Washington instituted a similar measure
during the 1992 election, and their motor voter program registered in
that state alone an additional 186,000 people.  Motor voter works
at registering voters and people who register vote.

         With this law and its appropriate implementation by
states, voters can register by applying for a driver's license,
through uniform mail application, or by applying in person at various
agencies designated by the states.  As a result, registration for
federal election will become as accessible as possible, while the
integrity of the electoral process is clearly preserved.

         As I said, I have long supported the idea of motor
voter.  More than a year ago, I promised as President that I would
sign HR-2 and fight for it's passage.  I'm pleased to be able to keep
today that I made on this Rock the Vote card which still has my
signature back in New Hampshire. (Applause.)

         I also want to point out that all the President does ia
lobby for and sign laws.  If the Congress doesn't pass them they
don't get passed.  The Rock the Vote card that I signed here says,
"Why don't politicians want you to vote?"  Well, there a lot of
members of the Congress here from both parties who do want you to
vote, and I want to thank not only those on the platform here but all
of those out in the audience who, after all, passed this bill into
law.  It was their votes that made this day possible.  (Applause.)

         This bill in its enactment is a sign of a new vibrancy
in our democracy.  With all the challenges and difficulties, with the
years of accumulated economic problems we face, with all the
divisions among our people, there is a new determination to make
progress.  You can see it in many ways:  Voter participation was up
in November, and after the election it didn't stop.  Here at the
White House, mail has climbed to unprecedented levels.  After I had
been in office 14 weeks, the White House had received more mail than
was received in all of 1992.  (Applause.)

         We have had the switchboards jammed, the E-mail system
full.  And if you haven't gotten an answer to your letter, we're
working on it.  (Laughter.)

         This country is pulsing with the power of individual
citizens ideas in their determination to get something done.  The
legislators who worked so hard to adopt this bill, the organizations
that gave themselves so completely to its endeavor, the young people,
the activists, MTV, all of them, tapped a powerful current of energy
that is still flowing in this country.

         The Congress has responded in other ways:  the United
States Senate passing just a few days ago a lobbying bill requiring
registration by all lobbyists and requiring the disclosure of
lobbyists' spending on members of Congress is an example of that.
The campaign finance reform, which has been presented, dramatically
trying to lower the costs of campaign and reduce the influence of
special interest groups is an example of that.  The current of reform
is moving in this country.  And those of you who helped to bring this
bill to pass can take a large share of credit not only for this bill
but for the general movement and energy and involvement and
determination of all of our fellow citizens.

         It was never right to sit on the sidelines of our
democracy.  And now with motor voter, there will be fewer and fewer
excuses for anyone to do so.

         Let us remember this in closing, voting is an empty
promise unless people vote.  Now, there is no longer the excuse of
the difficulty of registration.  It is the right of every American to
vote.  It is also the responsibility of every American to vote.

         We have taken an important step this morning to protect
that right.  And I want to challenge Joel and all the young people
who did so much to register voters for the last election, and all of
you who did so much to bring this voting rights bill to law and all
the ones that preceded it to make sure now that we keep the rights
alive by making sure that the responsibility to exercise it is
exercise by every eligible American.

         When we leave here today, we ought to say this voting
rights bill and the others will not be in vain.  Every year from now
on, we're going to have more registered voters and more people
voting.  We're going to make the system work.  The law empowers us to
do it.  It's now up to us to assume the responsibility to see that it
gets down.

         Thank you very much.  (Applause.)

         (The bill is signed.)

                                 END11:41 A.M. EDT