[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 46 (Wednesday, March 18, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Page S1625]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            MORNING BUSINESS

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                       DEMOCRACY RESTORATION ACT

  Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I support the Democracy Restoration Act. 
This important legislation would restore a voice in our democracy for 
millions of Americans who cannot vote simply because they have a 
criminal conviction. I thank Senator Cardin for his leadership on this 
issue. I am honored to be an original cosponsor of this important 
criminal justice reform legislation.
  The right to vote for all is a principle that goes to the very heart 
of all democracy. Voting is a fundamental right because it is the right 
from which all other rights derive. Participation in the political 
process is about giving a voice to the voiceless. It is about who we 
are as a Nation and whether we want citizens that contribute to our 
society to have a say in who represents them in the Federal Government.
  The road to extend voting rights to all Americans has been long and 
not without bumps. Our country was founded at a time when African 
Americans were denied the right to vote. For over a hundred years, we 
silenced entire populations of Americans and deemed them unworthy of 
participating in the political process merely because of their race.
  During his famous Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln called for 
the country to have a ``new birth of freedom.'' After the Civil War, 
the States ratified the Civil War Amendments to the Constitution to 
honor President Lincoln's promise. One of those amendments, the 
Fifteenth Amendment, gave African Americans the right to vote. Decades 
later, the Nineteenth Amendment gave women suffrage.
  Despite this progress, many States passed laws during the Jim Crow 
era to disenfranchise African Americans, including literacy tests, poll 
taxes, and grandfather clauses. These States also passed laws that 
banned people with certain convictions from voting. With the passage of 
the Voting Rights Act of 1965, many of these State disenfranchising 
laws were outlawed. But the ban on voting for people with certain 
convictions was not touched and it remains the law in many States.
  Today, 35 States restrict voting rights of persons who were formerly 
incarcerated. In fact, felony disenfranchisement laws prevent 5.85 
million Americans from voting. This is a staggering number of Americans 
that do not have a say in our political process.
  Punishment is a legitimate goal of our justice system. But once 
someone has served their time and been released, we must help our 
fellow citizens get back on their feet. As President George W. Bush 
said in his State of the Union Address in 2004, ``America is the land 
of second chance, and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead 
should lead to a better life.'' To further punish people who are back 
in the community by denying them the right to vote counters the 
expectation that citizens have rehabilitated themselves after a 
conviction.
  The Democracy Restoration Act would restore voting rights in Federal 
elections to millions of disenfranchised Americans who have been 
released from prison. It would require prisons receiving Federal funds 
notify people about their right to vote in Federal elections upon 
leaving prison or being sentenced to probation. It would empower the 
Department of Justice and former offenders harmed by a violation of 
this legislation with the right to sue.
  This bill corrects a civil rights wrong. It would sweep away the last 
vestige of Jim Crow laws. It would outlaw State disenfranchisement laws 
that have a disparate impact on racial minorities. It would provide a 
uniform standard to govern the restoration of voting rights.
  This bill reforms the criminal justice system. Every year, over 
600,000 people leave prison. We must find ways to reintegrate them back 
into the community. Civic participation gives ex-offenders a stake in 
government, which motivates law-abiding behavior and reduces the 
likelihood of future crimes. No evidence exists that denying voting 
rights to people after release from prison reduces crime. To the 
contrary, it makes sense that people who have paid their debt to 
society should reclaim their rights.
  This bill builds off of the progress in the States. Recently, 8 
States have either repealed or amended lifetime disenfranchisement 
laws. Two states expanded voting rights to persons on probation or 
parole. Ten States eased the restoration process for people seeking to 
have their right to vote restored after the completion of their 
sentence. The Federal Government should follow their lead.
  Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come. This 
Congress can remedy the barriers to full citizenship faced by millions 
of formerly incarcerated people in our country, if this bill is enacted 
into law. Restoring the right to vote is good public policy.
  To protect basic public safety and strengthen the core of our 
democracy, I urge my fellow Senators to support the Democracy 
Restoration Act and quickly pass this important legislation.

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