Electoral Representation Quotes

Suffrage is a common right of citizenship. Women have the right of suffrage. Logically it cannot be escaped.

Far be it for me to encourage women to vote, or take an active part in politics in the present state of our government. Her right to the elective franchise, however, is the same, and should be yielded to her, whether she exercise that right or not.

Traditional or historically-based boundaries are not, and should not be, “politics free.” Rather, those boundaries represent a series of compromises of principle–among the virtues of, for example, close representation of voter views, ease of identifying “government” and “opposition” parties, and stability in government. They also represent an uneasy truce, sanctioned by tradition, among different parties seeking political advantage.

Politics begin where the masses are, not where there are thousands, but where there are millions, that is where serious politics begin.

Voters who are neither bound to the great political nor to any of the little sectarian divisions have no means of making their votes available.

There is more to the right to vote than the right to mark a piece of paper and drop it in a box or the right to pull a lever in a voting booth .... It also includes the right to have the vote counted at full value without dilution or discount.

A geographical division... is a most fatal of all divisions, as no authority will submit to be governed by a majority acting merely on a geographical principle.

Too many people are voting.

The majority of Puerto Ricans in Florida and New York are Democrats, but nonetheless, we have Republican governors.

Political parties exist to get bums on seats.

As I view the Republicans in Congress, I don't see them as a real reflection of many Republicans in our country.

Fair votes - fundamentally - are about the rights and the interests of the people.

I do know that I don't want to see anybody legitimately have the excuse that they are not voting because their votes don't count. That can't happen - whether I'm the one impacted by that vote or not.

One difficulty in making the Senate work the way it was intended is that America's electorate is increasingly divided into red and blue states, with lawmakers representing just one color or the other.

The House of Lords has many fine aspects, but at its heart, it is a betrayal of the core democratic principle that those in the enlightened world hold so dear - that those who make the laws of the land should be elected by those who must obey those laws.

An election is supposed to be about our whole country - we can't just concentrate on those areas where people, for the most part, already agree with us.

I think if people value democracy, they had damn well better get out and exercise their right to vote while their vote still means something.

You can't consider a president weak because he will have a Congress that Mexican voters have wanted to be co-responsible in the decisions to be taken... It will be through the leadership that I will exercise that we will be able to build the agreements in Congress.

If you're a politician and all you care about is staying in office, you're worried about a small group of voters in your district who vote in the primary. If you're a corporation, you need to be much more in synch with public opinion, because you're appealing to people across the spectrum. Ironically, a lot of corporations have to be far more democratic than democratically elected officials.

It may well happen that the public voice, pronounced by the representatives of the people, will be more constant to the public good than if pronounced by the people themselves.

If a catastrophic event wipes out a large portion of House members, America needs to know this body, elected by the people, will be quickly and legally reconstituted and will continue to function.

I have been represented as a Protestant minister; there was not one of the canvassers of the honourable gentlemen opposite that did not represent to the people that I was not a Minister of the Crown, but that I was a Protestant minister.

I believe the House of Representatives is exactly the place where immigration reform should take place. Our entire House is elected every two years. We're the people closest to the people.

As in most country constituencies, the majority of those of wealth or large property are on the Conservative side.

The personal attendance and intervention of women in election proceedings...would be a practical evil not only of the gravest but even of an intolerable character.