When public access to voting is impaired or when public confidence in voting is diluted, democracy suffers and our freedom is less secure.

When I was growing up, we used to play basketball in a park that was never shoveled when it snowed. The basketball rims were never fixed. And we understood then that there was a relationship between public policy and our quality of life.

And when people in power can stay in power they do very little to tinker with the apparatus that put them in power.

It's an embarrassment that we don't have a broad enough consensus among political leaders that true reform should take place.

I found that there is very little interest in Washington for true election reform. That neither the White House nor either house of the Congress seems to be as committed to guaranteeing democratic participation in this country as we seem to be in other countries.

Democracy means that you have the right to vote without intimidation and undue burdens.

We have no basis for having a recall of any particular type of voting equipment because there are no standards. And when we do have standards, even these standards are required to be voluntary.