Boxer: 'So Sad to See the Party of Lincoln' Attempting to 'Suppress the Vote'

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) warned last night on MSNBC that “everything is at stake” in this election “including our democracy, the right to vote.”

“There are seven horrible laws on the books, very bad voter suppression, voter I.D., the worst kind… every one of those, every single one of those signed by a Republican governor,” Boxer said. “This is one of the biggest issues of this election of our time.”

“Everyone who cherishes that right to vote, get out there and defy the pundits who say, ‘Oh it’s just going to be terribly low turnout.’ We have the power to change it. And this issue, there are many issues on the line. We know that. The fair-shot agenda, equal pay for equal work, minimum wage, reducing interest rates on college loans. All those are very important. But this one, the party that stands for the right to vote is the Democratic Party.”

Boxer said she knows “it’s a fact” that the Republican Party is “trying to suppress the vote.”

“It is so sad to see the party of Lincoln has taken this approach,” she said. “They can’t win on the issues so they’re trying to stop people from getting to the polls.”

The senator plans on introducing the Right to Vote Act, which rolls together two House bills and “basically says, ‘OK, states, if you want voter I.D. they have to be offered free and on time. And if you are forcing someone to go buy their birth certificate you have to foot the bill. And if your law is so difficult that people can’t do it then they can go and they can vote.'”

“And they can sign an affidavit that they are who they are and they live where they say they live under penalty of law. And it’s a stiff fine, if anyone lies — $250,000 or five years in prison, or both,” Boxer continued.

“We need to hold control of the United States Senate. And we have to hope we can gain control of the House for that, keep our loses to a minimum there. And it is up to us. It is up to us… If you keep Democrats home because you don’t want them to vote and they can’t get to vote, you have a better shot at controlling the Senate.”