[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 424 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. CON. RES. 424

 Calling on the Attorney General to protect the right to vote of every 
 person in the United States by promptly and thoroughly investigating 
complaints of violations of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the National 
 Voter Registration Act of 1993, and the Help America Vote Act of 2002.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 23, 2008

Ms. Waters (for herself, Mr. Conyers, Mr. Watt, Mr. Scott of Virginia, 
 Ms. Corrine Brown of Florida, Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas, Ms. Lee, Mr. 
Butterfield, Mr. Payne, Mr. Grijalva, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, Mr. Meeks 
of New York, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Ms. Norton, Mr. Serrano, Mr. Clay, 
   Mr. Cleaver, Mr. Jackson of Illinois, Mr. Davis of Illinois, Mrs. 
  Capps, Mr. Farr, Mr. Lewis of Georgia, Ms. Woolsey, Mr. Rush, Mrs. 
Christensen, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Mr. Ellison, Mr. McGovern, Ms. Zoe 
    Lofgren of California, and Mr. Al Green of Texas) submitted the 
following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
                             the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
 Calling on the Attorney General to protect the right to vote of every 
 person in the United States by promptly and thoroughly investigating 
complaints of violations of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the National 
 Voter Registration Act of 1993, and the Help America Vote Act of 2002.

Whereas the 15th amendment to the Constitution provides the right to vote to 
        citizens and prohibits the denial or abridgement of this right based on 
        race, color, or previous condition of servitude;
Whereas section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 provides that no person, 
        acting under color of law or otherwise, shall intimidate, threaten, or 
        coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person for 
        voting or attempting to vote or otherwise intimidating or denying any 
        eligible person from voting;
Whereas the Voting Rights Act of 1965 forbids any State or political subdivision 
        to enact any election law to deny or abridge voting rights based on race 
        or color;
Whereas the Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits any person, whether acting under 
        color of law or otherwise, from failing or refusing to permit any 
        qualified person from voting in general, special, or primary Federal 
        elections, refusing to count the vote of a qualified person, or 
        intimidating anyone attempting to vote or any one who is assisting a 
        person in voting under provisions of the Voting Rights Act;
Whereas the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended in 1970, provides that a 
        person otherwise qualified to vote shall not be denied the right to vote 
        in a presidential election because of an extended duration residency 
        requirement;
Whereas the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended in 1975, added section 203 to 
        increase the participation of language minorities by requiring bilingual 
        elections in certain circumstances;
Whereas as originally enacted, section 2 forbade any jurisdiction in the country 
        to enact an election law that denies or abridges voting rights on 
        account of race or color;
Whereas the 1975 amendments added minorities to this section as a protected 
        class;
Whereas the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended in 1982, effectively 
        overturned a 1980 United States Supreme Court ruling in Mobile v. 
        Bolden, and modified the standard of legal review to allow certain 
        voting rights violations under section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 
        1965 to be proven by showing that an election law or procedure was 
        adopted with a discriminatory purpose or had a discriminatory effect;
Whereas the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 prohibits voters from being 
        removed from rolls of registered voters as an election is approaching 
        and also prohibits States from engaging in any effort to systematically 
        remove voters from the list of eligible voters unless that action was 
        completed more than 90 days before the date of a Federal election and is 
        applied in a nondiscriminatory manner that complies with the Voting 
        Rights Act of 1965;
Whereas the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights 
        Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006 affirmed the existing 
        statutory requirements and also prohibited any person, whether acting 
        under color of law or otherwise, from failing or refusing to permit any 
        qualified person from voting in general, special, or primary Federal 
        elections, refusing to count the vote of a qualified person, or 
        intimidating anyone attempting to vote or anyone who is assisting a 
        person who is voting under provisions of the Act;
Whereas he Voting Rights Reauthorization and Amendments of 2006 clarified the 
        standard under section 5 for determining whether certain covered States 
        or jurisdictions have enacted or seek to administer any voting 
        qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, or practice, or 
        procedure with respect to voting that either has the purpose or will 
        have the effect of denying or diminishing the voting rights of United 
        States citizens on account of race or color;
Whereas the revision also instituted a cause of action in the United States 
        District Court for the District of Columbia for declaratory judgment;
Whereas under the Help America Vote Act of 2002, failure to provide a ballot to 
        a voter seeking to exercise the right to vote is a violation of Federal 
        law;
Whereas reports from throughout the United States indicate organized, systematic 
        efforts targeting vulnerable populations, including residents displaced 
        by foreclosure and victims of natural disasters, are underway to attempt 
        to exclude, prevent, deter, and discourage eligible voters from 
        exercising his or her right to vote;
Whereas complaints have been reported in Virginia, a State that is covered, in 
        part, under section 5, alleging voter suppression schemes that have 
        disseminated erroneous information regarding the impact of voter 
        registration on students' eligibility for financial aid where they are 
        enrolled in school;
Whereas such a systematic scheme by party or local officials to frustrate 
        voters' ability to exercise his or her right to vote runs afoul of the 
        goals of the Voting Rights Act of 1965;
Whereas complaints have been reported in Michigan of a plan to systematically 
        challenge voters whose names appear on State lists of foreclosed 
        properties in a voter suppression scheme referred to as ``Lose Your 
        Home, Lose Your Vote'';
Whereas such a scheme would harass voters and potentially impair the rights of 
        thousands of voters, many of whom are racial minorities;
Whereas evidence shows that a disproportionate number of persons impacted by the 
        current foreclosure and housing crisis are African-American, Latino, 
        minority, and low-income;
Whereas in 2008, there have been at least 739,000 people in the United States 
        who have entered foreclosure proceedings that may have affected their 
        residential status;
Whereas many of these people were targeted for predatory loans that loan 
        originators knew or should have known were unaffordable to them over the 
        life of the loan, particularly where the rate on the loan was scheduled 
        to adjust after an initial teaser rate;
Whereas others, particularly the elderly, were targeted for reverse mortgages 
        and refinancings that threatened the ownership of the homes in which 
        they have resided for many years;
Whereas in 2008, thousands of people in the United States have had their 
        residential status affected by Hurricanes and Tropical Storms Bertha, 
        Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gustav, Hanna, and Ike, as well as related floods 
        and other natural disasters;
Whereas the payment of insurance claims and delivery of government assistance 
        are often delayed for months, even years, and leaves displaced residents 
        unable to return to their homes;
Whereas in Mississippi, efforts were made to place the selection for the special 
        election for a United States Senate race near the bottom of the ballot 
        among candidates for local office rather than near the top among the 
        Federal races such as President and the other United States Senate race 
        as required by State law in an attempt to cause the special election 
        race to be overlooked;
Whereas a State judge has ruled that the race be placed higher on the ballot, in 
        order to not disenfranchise voters, but that decision was appealed to 
        the State Supreme Court, which subsequently ruled such ballot placement 
        did not comply with the law;
Whereas complaints were reported in Maryland of fliers distributed in minority 
        communities with erroneous election information, including incorrect 
        election dates, for the purpose of suppressing minority voting 
        participation;
Whereas numerous complaints of deceptive practices and voter intimidation have 
        been reported in Florida in recent presidential elections, including--

    (1) purging the names, disproportionately of African-Americans, from 
certain county voting lists;

    (2) eliminating, in error, thousands of individuals from registration 
lists on grounds that they were felons;

    (3) failing to provide bilingual ballots or access to translators and 
language assistance;

    (4) intimidating voters on their way to the polls by using unauthorized 
traffic checkpoints near a voting precinct;

    (5) intimidating voters with inaccurate information that if they have 
not paid taxes or child support that they cannot vote;

    (6) changing designated polling places without advance notice or 
without adequate notice to the community;

    (7) sending voters from one precinct to another only for the 
individuals to find they were not on the registration lists or that it was 
too late to vote; and

    (8) failing to send requested absentee ballots to individuals and then 
refusing to let these same individuals vote when they appeared at the 
precinct to vote;

Whereas in 2008, new complaints have been reported in Florida of a ``No Match, 
        No Vote'' law which requires election officials to verify applicants' 
        drivers license numbers or the last four digits of their Social Security 
        numbers by using government data bases and any errors, including simple 
        typos, clerical errors, or even middle name changes, could lead to 
        identification mismatches resulting in the invalidation of votes;
Whereas press reports indicate that this new Florida ``No Match, No Vote'' law 
        will be enforced less than 30 days prior to the State's October 6, 2008, 
        registration deadline for the November 4, 2008, elections, and because 
        Florida is subject to section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a pre-
        clearance review under section 5 should be undertaken by the Department 
        of Justice before this new law is enforced to ensure that thousands of 
        voters, including minorities and the working poor, are not adversely 
        affected or disenfranchised by this new law; and
Whereas, voter caging, or the selection of lists or databases of voters compiled 
        for the purpose or intent of challenging voters, and other schemes 
        relying on inaccurate, incomplete, incorrect, or otherwise misleading 
        subject matter used to systematically challenge voters, when done in a 
        discriminatory manner, is a violation of section 2 of the Voting Rights 
        Act of 1965: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That Congress calls on the Attorney General to--
            (1) protect the right to vote of every person in the United 
        States by promptly and thoroughly investigating complaints of 
        violations of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the National Voter 
        Registration Act of 1993, and the Help America Vote Act of 
        2002;
            (2) exercise all the authorities and utilize all the 
        resources provided by Congress to fully enforce Federal voting 
        and civil rights statutes;
            (3) enjoin any efforts by individuals or organizations to 
        violate Federal voting and civil rights statutes by means of 
        intimidation, suppression, or deceptive practices and to ensure 
        that no eligible voter is denied the right to vote on November 
        4, 2008, or in any early voting periods prior to November 4, 
        2008, including voting by mail and absentee ballots; and
            (4) prosecute those who violate Federal voting and civil 
        rights statutes to the fullest extent of the law.
                                 <all>