26596 Hon. Bob Schaffer Hon. Donald A. Manzullo Hon
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26596 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS December 11, 2000 HONORING BEN ALEXANDER For loading vital petrol; properly prevent large numbers of African- But, terrorists had other plans American voters from voting in the presi- HON. BOB SCHAFFER To harm the U.S.S. Cole. dential election? She peacefully sat docked and still Gregory Palast, a reporter with the online OF COLORADO Before the dreadful, loud toll, magazine Salon, has done a number of arti- IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Which blew a forty-foot long hole cles on this. He noted that the company, Inside the U.S.S. Cole. ChoicePoint, and its subsidiary, Database Monday, December 11, 2000 Technologies Inc. (DBT), came up with a Mr. SCHAFFER. Mr. Speaker, this coming No time for general quarters sound— ‘‘scrub list’’ of 173,000 names. These were the The blind attack was brute cold, January, the Colorado State Board of Edu- names of people registered to vote in Florida Our sailors had no time to fight who, according to ChoicePoint, could be cation will lose a tremendous leader in Mr. To save the U.S.S. Cole. Ben Alexander. Serving as a Member-at-Large knocked off the rolls for one reason or an- The terrorists had rammed her side other. since January, 1999, Ben has developed a And precious cargo they stole, There was good reason for Florida to be reputation throughout Colorado for his work in For seventeen would lose their lives concerned about the integrity of its voter the education reform movement. Aboard the U.S.S. Cole. registration rolls. In 1997 the mayor of Ben initially entered public service in the And, now we grieve and wonder still Miami was removed from office because Colorado General Assembly. Elected as a For kindred, sacrificed souls, widespread fraud had occurred in the elec- state senator, he crafted meaningful education Whose lives served freedom’s cause for all tion. The following year a law was passed re- reform legislation as the chairman of the Edu- Those on the U.S.S. Cole. quiring counties in Florida to purge the rolls of duplicate registrations, the names of de- cation Committee. One particular bill involved Now, God, please hear our simple prayer ceased persons and felons. And draw these souls to Thy fold, increasing the per pupil expenditure for charter So far, so good. The problems developed As we salute these sailors brave school students to more closely parallel that of when the state turned to ChoicePoint, which Who served the U.S.S. Cole. their government school counterparts. I re- compiles and sells vast amounts of fre- member fondly, serving beside Ben on the —Kathy K. Mecklenburg, Rockford, Illinois, quently shaky information about individ- Senate Education Committee. Clearly he has October 2000. uals. (ChoicePoint, which acquired DBT last earned the title of ‘‘Statesman,’’ and I’m proud f May, was fired by the state of Pennsylvania to call him a friend. for breaching the confidentiality of driving KEEP THEM OUT! records.) With this private outfit in the pic- Throughout his distinguished public service, ture it soon became clear that top Repub- Ben has consistently worked to promote better lican officials would be trying to reap a par- teacher training and evaluation. Colorado’s HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR. tisan political advantage from a law de- Governor, Bill Owens, recognized Ben’s inno- OF MICHIGAN signed to correct an egregious wrong. And vation and leadership and tapped him as a IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES that partisan advantage would be realized in large part by trampling on the voting rights key player in Colorado’s education reform Monday, December 11, 2000 movement. He worked hard with Governor of minorities. Over the spring and summer ChoicePoint Owens to implement the Colorado Student As- Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to condemn the violations of the Voting Rights was forced to acknowledge that 8,000 voters sessment Program, a plan that measures the it had listed as felons had in fact been guilty progress of Colorado students toward content Act that have been reported in Florida on No- only of misdemeanors, which would not have standards in reading, writing, math, and vember 7. Election Day 2000 is a day that will affected their right to vote. What is mad- science. live in infamy, in every American’s mind who dening is that when such an erroneous list of Mr. Speaker, in 1818, Thomas Jefferson cares about the concepts of Democracy, Jus- names gets into the hands of county election said, ‘‘A system of general education, which tice, and Equality. Thousands of votes, mostly officials, as this one did, it is very difficult— shall reach every description of our citizens African-American, students, and senior votes, often impossible—to find out what’s correct from the richest to the poorest, as it was the were disqualified, and effectively, and what’s not correct. disenfranchised. Despite higher than ever That snickering you hear is from Repub- earliest, so will it be the latest of all the public lican operatives who know that these kinds concerns in which I shall permit myself to take turnouts of minorities and seniors, we had of foul-ups, because they are based on crimi- an interest.’’ This quotation embodies Ben Al- higher than ever rates of disqualified and nal records, will disproportionately affect exander’s career in public service. We will disenfranchised voters, and that my col- minority voters. dearly miss his service on the State Board of leagues is unAmerican. Bob Herbert of the ChoicePoint eventually came up with a Education. New York Times has shed light on some of ‘‘corrected’’ list of 173,000 names of people it targeted as ineligible because they were de- f the egregious tactics employed by Florida elections officials attempting to keep Ameri- ceased, or were registered more than once, or TRIBUTE TO THE U.S.S. ‘‘COLE’’ had been convicted of a felony. cans from voting, in the December 7 issue of But it was a lousy list, riddled with mis- the New York times. I respectfully request that takes. And in an interview with me yester- HON. DONALD A. MANZULLO it be placed in the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, to day, Marty Fagan, a ChoicePoint vice presi- OF ILLINOIS highlight the despicable tactics employed to dent, said there had never been any expecta- IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES keep American votes from being cast and tion that the list would be particularly accu- counted in the 2000 election. This article re- rate. Remember now, we’re talking about a Monday, December 11, 2000 flects much of the sentiment of African-Ameri- list that would be used to strip Americans of Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, as we reflect the precious right to vote. cans and other Americans who share these Mr. Fagan said the list focused on people on the tragic attack on the U.S.S. Cole and concerns about this crisis in our Democracy. who ‘‘might’’ have been deceased, or might those brave American service members who KEEP THEM OUT! have been listed twice, or ‘‘possible felons.’’ lost their lives while serving their country and He said it was ‘‘important to know’’ that the (By Bob Herbert) protecting the freedoms we Americans all information needed to be ‘‘verified’’ by coun- enjoy, I submit for the RECORD a poem written The tactics have changed, but the goal re- ty election officials. by one of my constituents, Kathy K. Mecklen- mains depressingly the same: Keep the That was interesting, because ChoicePoint coloreds, the blacks, the African-Ameri- came up with 58,000 people—people registered burg of Rockford, IL. Kathy’s simple poem cans—whatever they’re called in the par- captures the heartfelt sentiments of all Ameri- to vote—who would fall into the category he ticular instance—keep them out of the vot- calls ‘‘possible felons.’’ How in the world cans regarding the tragedy and heroism sur- ing booths. were county election officials supposed to rounding this event. It is my privilege to place Do not let them vote! If you can find a way check out each and every one and find out if it in the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. to stop them, stop them. they were felons or not? So here we go again, this time in Florida. They couldn’t. They didn’t. THE COLE TRIBUTE It turns out that the state of Florida is The horror stories about perfectly inno- This lone destroyer held no fame— using a private company with close ties to cent black voters being turned away from Now, history will enroll, the Republican Party to help ‘‘cleanse’’ the the polls because they had been targeted as And fate forever changed the lives state’s voter registration rolls. Would it sur- convicted felons started coming in early on Aboard the U.S.S. Cole. prise anyone anywhere to learn that the the morning of Nov. 7, Election Day. And To Aden she sailed into port cleansing process somehow managed to im- they’re still coming in. VerDate jul 14 2003 14:44 Jan 23, 2005 Jkt 029102 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 0689 Sfmt 0634 E:\BR00\E11DE0.000 E11DE0 December 11, 2000 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 26597 Blacks turned out to vote in record num- housing developer. The TAMs involved what Mennen Williams and Martha and Hicks Grif- bers in Florida this year, but huge numbers costs may be included in the eligible basis of fiths in an effort to transform the Michigan were systematically turned away for one spe- a property for the purpose of determining the Democratic Party into a modern and progres- cious reason after another.