Mr. Chairman, the hearings which we begin today may be the most important held in this century. At stake is the very integrity of the election process. Unless we can safeguard that process from fraud, manipulation, deception, and other illegal or unethical activities, one of our most precious rights, the right to vote, will be without meaning. Democracy will have been subverted.
– DANIEL K. INOUYE
Excerpt from opening statement as a member of the Senate committee investigating the Watergate scandal, May 17, 1973.