Speech #1050096115

Dornans unproven allegations and the actions of the Committee on House Oversight have resulted in an unprecedented attack against Latino voters and created a chilling effect with a message to Latinos that their votes are suspect. and Whereas the allegations made by Mr. Robert Dornan have been largely found to be without merit: charges of improper voting from a business. rather than a resident address. underage voting. double voting. and charges of unusually large number of individuals voting from the same address. It was found that voting from the same address included a Marines barracks and the domicile of nuns. that business addresses were legal residences for the individuals. including the zoo keeper of the Santa Ana zoo. that duplicate voting was by different individuals and those accused of underage voting were of age. and Whereas the Committee on House Oversight has issued unprecedented subpoenas to the Immigration and Naturalization Service to compare their records with Orange County voter registration records. the first time in any election in the history of the United States that the INS has been asked by Congress to verify the citizenship of voters. and Whereas the INS has complied with the Committees request and. at the Committees request. has been doing a manual check of its paper files and providing worksheets containing supplemental information on that manual check to the Committee on House Oversight for over five months. and Whereas the Committee on House Oversight. subpoenaed the records seized by the District Attorney of Orange County on February 13. 1997 and has received and reviewed all records pertaining to registration efforts of that group. and Whereas the House Oversight Committee is now pursuing a duplicate and dilatory review of materials already in the Committees possession by the Secretary of State of California. and Whereas the Task Force on the Contested Election in the 46th District of California and the Committee have been reviewing these materials and has all the information it needs regarding who voted in the 46th District and all the information it needs to make judgments concerning those votes. and Whereas the Committee on House Oversight has after over nine months of review and investigation failed to present credible evidence to change the outcome of the election of Congresswoman Sanchez and is pursuing never ending and unsubstantiated areas of review. and Whereas. Contestant Robert Dornan has not shown or provided credible evidence that the outcome of the election is other than Congresswoman Sanchezs election to the Congress. and Whereas. after nearly a year and the expenditure of over $500.000. the continued probe of the Sanchez election unfairly targets Latino voters and discourages their full participation in the democratic process. and Whereas. the Committee on House Oversight should complete its review of this matter and bring this contest to an end and now therefore be it: Resolved. That unless the Committee on House Oversight has sooner reported a recommendation for its final disposition. the contest in the 46th District of California is dismissed upon the expiration of November 7.