Barbara Boxer Pushes Voting Reform With LINE Act (VIDEO)

WATCH: Boxer: Voting Commission Can't Substitute For Actually Fixing The Problem

President Barack Obama addressed the need for voting rights protection in Tuesday's State of the Union speech.

Listening closely was U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who joined HuffPost Live on Wednesday to discuss her own proposed voter reform legislation. Called the LINE Act, Boxer's election reform bill would require new national standards relating to the minimum number of voting machines, election workers, and other election resources to be in place by the end of 2013.

In conversation with HuffPost Live's Mike Sacks, the senator said that hearing Obama call for the creation of a voting rights commission was heartening, but that "the commission idea is great, but I don't think it should substitute for fixing the problem."

"This is a birthright. This is a right, this isn't something we can say is truly a right if you have to wait on line for seven hours," said Boxer, who added that long delays are "really akin to denial of a vote."

"The thing I don't want to see happen is nothing," the senator said, referring to Washington's paralysis. "And sometimes around here, that's what happens."

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