Last month I posted a diary on DailyKos about the 2,300 men, women and children of Japanese ancestry who were forcibly deported from 13 Latin American countries to the U.S. and placed in an internment camp in Texas during World War II.

In an effort to bring this little known fact in to the light of day and rectify this injustice committed by our government, I introduced H.R. 662, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Latin Americans of Japanese Descent Act of 2007 on January 24 of this year. On Monday, a Day of Remembrance marking the 65th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 - the document that made it possible to intern thousands of innocent American citizens and Japanese Latin Americans during World War II, the Washington Post published an editorial I coauthored with Rep. Dan Lungren (CA-3) advocating passage of our bill.

I want to take a moment to update you all on a debate and vote we had yesterday in the House of Representatives on H.R. 4844, the misleading "Federal Election Integrity Act of 2006." Let me say at the outset: this is not a reform bill that would enhance voter confidence. It is part of an ongoing effort by Republicans to rig the rules and limit who votes. H.R. 4844 is, in essence, a 21st century poll-tax meant to discourage voting amongst Americans from our most disadvantaged communities. Here's how it works...

Nine weeks from today Americans will be asked to go to the polls and choose who will represent them in Congress. This election provides an important opportunity for voters to decide whether or not they want to change the direction that this country is headed in - and it is shaping up to be an exciting contest with a lot of close races.

Unfortunately, over the past two election cycles we have witnessed too many instances of irregularities at the voting booth with the advent of paperless electronic voting. And as we know too well, in a tight race, just a handful of irregularities can add up to major trouble when it comes time to decide the winner. That is why I am an advocate for and proud co-sponsor of Rep. Rush Holt's H.R. 550, The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act.

H.R. 550, if passed, would require all voting machines to produce an actual paper record that voters can inspect to check the accuracy of their votes and that election officials can use to verify votes in the event of a computer malfunction, hacking, or other irregularity. Experts often refer to this paper record as a "voter-verified paper ballot."