[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 401 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 401

    Designating September 2021 as ``National Voting Rights Month''.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 30, 2021

  Mr. Wyden (for himself, Mr. Markey, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Menendez, Ms. 
  Duckworth, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. Reed, Mrs. Feinstein, Ms. Hirono, Mr. 
 Blumenthal, Mr. Cardin, Ms. Cortez Masto, Mr. Booker, Ms. Smith, Mr. 
Brown, Mr. King, Mr. Durbin, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Bennet, Mr. Warner, Mr. 
  Carper, Mr. Heinrich, Mr. Kaine, and Mr. Van Hollen) submitted the 
   following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the 
                               Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
    Designating September 2021 as ``National Voting Rights Month''.

Whereas voting is one of the single most important rights that can be exercised 
        in a democracy;
Whereas, over the course of history, various voter suppression laws in the 
        United States have hindered, and even prohibited, certain individuals 
        and groups from exercising the right to vote;
Whereas, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, Native Americans and people 
        who were born to United States citizens abroad, people who spoke a 
        language other than English, and people who were formerly subjected to 
        slavery were denied full citizenship and prevented from voting by 
        English literacy tests;
Whereas, since the 1870s, minority groups such as Black Americans in the South 
        have suffered from the oppressive effects of Jim Crow laws that were 
        designed to prevent political, economic, and social mobility;
Whereas Black Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and other 
        underrepresented voters were subject to violence, poll taxes, literacy 
        tests, all-White primaries, property ownership tests, and grandfather 
        clauses that were designed to suppress the right of those individuals to 
        vote;
Whereas 5,200,000 people in the United States are currently banned from voting 
        because of a felony conviction, including 1 in 16 Black adults, due to 
        the shameful entanglement of racial injustice in the criminal legal 
        system and voting access in the United States;
Whereas members of the aforementioned groups and others are currently, in some 
        cases, subject to intimidation, voter roll purges, and financial 
        barriers that act effectively as modern-day poll taxes;
Whereas, in 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301 
        et seq.) to protect the right of Black Americans and other traditionally 
        disenfranchised groups to vote, among other reasons;
Whereas, in 2013, in the landmark case of Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 
        (2013), the Supreme Court of the United States invalidated section 4 of 
        the Voting Rights Act of 1965, dismantling the preclearance formula 
        provision in that Act that protected voters in States and localities 
        that historically have suppressed the right of minorities to vote;
Whereas, since the invalidation of the preclearance formula provision of the 
        Voting Rights Act of 1965, gerrymandered districts in many States have 
        gone unchallenged and have become less likely to be invalidated by the 
        courts;
Whereas these gerrymandered districts have been found to have discriminatory 
        impacts on traditionally disenfranchised minorities through tactics that 
        include ``cracking'', diluting the voting power of minorities across 
        many districts, and ``packing'' or concentrating minority voters' power 
        in one district to reduce their voting power in other districts;
Whereas the courts have found the congressional and, in some cases, State 
        legislative district maps, in Texas, North Carolina, Florida, 
        Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin to be gerrymandered districts that 
        were created to favor some groups over others;
Whereas the decision of the Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 
        529 (2013), calls on Congress to update the formula in the Voting Rights 
        Act of 1965;
Whereas these restrictive voting laws encompass cutbacks in early voting, voter 
        roll purges, placement of faulty equipment in minority communities, 
        requirement of photo identification, and the elimination of same-day 
        registration;
Whereas these policies could outright disenfranchise or make voting much more 
        difficult for more than 80,000,000 minority, elderly, poor, and disabled 
        voters, among other groups;
Whereas, in 2016, discriminatory laws in North Carolina, Wisconsin, North 
        Dakota, and Texas were ruled to violate voters' rights and overturned by 
        the courts;
Whereas the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (referred to in this preamble as ``COVID-
        19'') public health emergency has only exacerbated the state of 
        elections and the difficulties voters face in obtaining access to the 
        ballot;
Whereas a lack of fair and safe election policies threatens minority 
        communities, which have been disproportionately impacted and 
        disenfranchised due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and their access to the 
        ballot;
Whereas addressing the challenges of administering future elections requires 
        increasing the accessibility of vote-by-mail and other limited-contact 
        options to ensure the protection of voters' health and safety amid a 
        global pandemic;
Whereas, as voting by mail becomes a safer and more accessible option for voters 
        to exercise their constitutional right to vote during the unprecedented 
        times caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the work of the United States 
        Postal Service will be of paramount importance in successfully 
        conducting elections;
Whereas Congress must work to combat any attempts to dismantle or underfund the 
        United States Postal Service or obstruct the passage of the mail as 
        blatant tactics of voter suppression and election interference;
Whereas, following the 2020 elections, there has been a relentless attack on the 
        right to vote with more than 400 bills having been introduced to roll 
        back the right to vote, including such bills being introduced in almost 
        every State and at least 31 of such bills having been signed into law in 
        18 States;
Whereas there is much more work to be done to ensure all citizens of the United 
        States have the right to vote through free, fair, and accessible 
        elections, and Congress must exercise its constitutional authority to 
        protect the right to vote;
Whereas National Voter Registration Day is September 22; and
Whereas September 2021 would be an appropriate month to designate as ``National 
        Voting Rights Month'' and to ensure that, through the registration of 
        voters and awareness of elections, the democracy of the United States 
        includes all citizens of the United States: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the Senate--
            (1) designates September 2021 as ``National Voting Rights 
        Month'';
            (2) encourages all people in the United States to uphold 
        the right of every citizen to exercise the sacred and 
        fundamental right to vote;
            (3) encourages Congress to pass--
                    (A) the For the People Act of 2021 (S. 2093 and 
                H.R. 1 of the 117th Congress), to increase voters' 
                access to the ballot, prohibit the use of deceptive 
                practices to intimidate voters, end gerrymandering, 
                create automatic voter registration, limit the power of 
                restrictive voter identification laws, make critical 
                investments in election infrastructure and technology, 
                and address corruption in campaign finance and ethics;
                    (B) the Freedom to Vote Act (S. 2747 of the 117th 
                Congress), to set basic national standards to make sure 
                all people in the United States can cast their ballots 
                in the way that works best for them, regardless of what 
                ZIP code they live in, improve access to the ballot for 
                people in the United States, advance commonsense 
                election integrity reforms, and protect the democracy 
                of the United States from relentless attacks;
                    (C) the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act 
                of 2021 (H.R. 4 of the 117th Congress), to restore the 
                protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 
                10301 et seq.) that prohibit discriminatory voting 
                practices, remove barriers to voting, and provide 
                protections for minority voters in States with a 
                history of voting discrimination;
                    (D) the Democracy Restoration Act (S. 481 of the 
                117th Congress), to restore Federal voting rights to 
                citizens after release from imprisonment, honoring the 
                responsibilities of citizenship and civic engagement 
                necessary for building healthy and safe communities, 
                while welcoming the contributions of people returning 
                home after imprisonment; and
                    (E) other voting rights legislation that seeks to 
                advance voting rights and protect elections in the 
                United States;
            (4) recommends that public schools and universities in the 
        United States develop an academic curriculum that educates 
        students about--
                    (A) the importance of voting, how to register to 
                vote, where to vote, and the different forms of voting;
                    (B) the history of voter suppression in the United 
                States before and after passage of the Voting Rights 
                Act of 1965; and
                    (C) current measures that have been taken to 
                restrict the vote;
            (5) encourages the United States Postal Service to issue a 
        special John R. Lewis stamp during the month of September--
                    (A) to honor the life and legacy of John R. Lewis 
                in supporting voting rights; and
                    (B) to remind people in the United States that 
                ordinary citizens risked their lives, marched, and 
                participated in the great democracy of the United 
                States so that all citizens would have the fundamental 
                right to vote; and
            (6) invites Congress to allocate the requisite funds for 
        public service announcements on television, radio, newspapers, 
        magazines, social media, billboards, buses, and other forms of 
        media--
                    (A) to remind people in the United States when 
                elections are being held;
                    (B) to share important registration deadlines; and
                    (C) to urge people to get out and vote.
                                 <all>