mr. speaker , if the gentleman will yield , i will tell my colleagues that the state i represent is nearly 3 , 000 miles away , and we are having a very important election in our state . 
i have voted by absentee ballot . 
i did that just this week and sent my ballot in . 
we have a great deal of work to do , not only on tuesday but next week , so we will be meeting here , and we have the items that i mentioned , the measures that will be considered under suspension , we have the very important secure access to justice and court protection act that needs to be considered , and we just have to proceed with our work . 
so let me say that we do want every member to participate in those elections , but i suspect that , in light of the fact that we will have so much work to do here , that members should plan to be in washington during the day on tuesday . 
