[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 146 (Thursday, September 12, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5476-S5477]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

                                 ______
                                 

SENATE RESOLUTION 309--DESIGNATING SEPTEMBER 2019 AS ``NATIONAL VOTING 
                             RIGHTS MONTH''

  Mr. WYDEN (for himself, Mr. Bennet, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Booker, Mr. 
Brown, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Coons, Ms. Duckworth, Mr. Durbin, 
Ms. Harris, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Jones, Mr. Kaine, Mr. Markey, Mr. Menendez, 
Mr. Merkley, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Sanders, Ms. Smith, Mr. Udall, and Mr. 
Van Hollen) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
the Committee on the Judiciary:

                              S. Res. 309

       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 African 
     Americans in the South have suffered from the oppressive 
     effects of Jim Crow laws designed to prevent political, 
     economic, and social mobility;
       Whereas African 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;
       Whereas members of the aforementioned groups and others are 
     currently, in some cases, subject to intimidation, voter roll 
     purges, bans on former prisoners from voting, 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 
     African Americans and other traditionally disenfranchised 
     groups to vote, among other reasons;
       Whereas, in 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 or have 
     become less likely to be invalidated by the courts;
       Whereas these gerrymandered districts have been found to 
     have a discriminatory impact on traditionally disenfranchised 
     minorities through tactics that include ``cracking'', 
     diluting the voting power of minorities across many 
     districts, and ``packing'', 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 some form of a restrictive voting law has been 
     instituted in 22 States since 2013;
       Whereas these restrictive voting laws encompass cutbacks in 
     early voting, voter roll purges, placement of faulty 
     equipment in minority communities, requirement of photo 
     identification--the procurement of which amounts to a modern 
     day poll tax, and the elimination of same-day registration;
       Whereas these changes 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 there is much more work to be done to ensure all 
     citizens of the United States have the right to vote;
       Whereas National Voter Registration Day is September 25; 
     and
       Whereas September 2019 would be an appropriate month to 
     designate as ``National Voting Rights Month'': Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) designates September 2019 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 2019 (S. 949 and H.R. 1 of 
     the 116th 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 Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2019 (S. 561 and 
     H.R. 4 of the 116th 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;
       (C) the Securing America's Federal Elections Act, or the 
     SAFE Act (S. 2238 and H.R. 2722 of the 116th Congress), to 
     provide funding for States to improve the administration

[[Page S5477]]

     of elections, including by enhancing technology and election 
     security, replacing antiquated voting systems, and meeting 
     new standards for administering elections; and
       (D) 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 the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965;
       (C) current issues relating to laws passed after 1965 that 
     restrict the right to vote; and
       (D) any actions taken by State and Federal Government 
     officials since passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that 
     have created barriers to the exercise of the right to vote;
       (5) encourages the United States Postal Service to issue a 
     special Fannie Lou Hamer stamp during the month of September 
     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 to remind people in the United States 
     when elections are being held and to urge people to get out 
     and vote.

                          ____________________