[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 159 (Tuesday, September 15, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5614-S5615]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SENATE RESOLUTION 695--DESIGNATING SEPTEMBER 2020 AS ``NATIONAL VOTING 
                             RIGHTS MONTH''

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

                              S. Res. 695

       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 that were 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 that were 
     designed to suppress the right of those individuals to vote;
       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, 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 some form of a restrictive voting law has been 
     instituted in at least 23 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, 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 upcoming 
     elections in 2020 and beyond 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 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;
       Whereas National Voter Registration Day is September 22; 
     and
       Whereas September 2020 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 2020 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) commemorates--
       (A) the 100th anniversary of Senate passage of the 19th 
     Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which 
     guarantees women the right to vote; and
       (B) the legacy of generations of suffragists who fought to 
     protect women's rights at the ballot;
       (4) 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 John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2020 
     (H.R. 4 of the 116th Congress) (introduced in the Senate as 
     the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2019 (S. 561 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 Natural Disaster and Emergency Ballot Act of 2020 
     (S. 4033 of the 116th Congress), to ensure that every 
     eligible voter in the United States is able to exercise the 
     right to vote safely and securely during a declared state of 
     emergency by, among other things--
       (i) guaranteeing no-excuse absentee voting;
       (ii) expanding early voting;
       (iii) providing self-sealing return envelopes with prepaid 
     postage for--

       (I) voter registration applications;
       (II) absentee-ballot applications; and
       (III) absentee ballots; and

       (iv) providing accommodations for voters on Indian lands;
       (D) the Delivering for America Act (S. 4527 and H.R. 8015 
     in the 116th Congress), to prohibit the United States Postal 
     Service from making changes to operations or levels of 
     service that would reduce those operations or levels of 
     service relative to those that were in effect on January 1, 
     2020, establish requirements for the processing of election 
     mail, and provide additional funding for the Postal Service 
     Fund;

[[Page S5615]]

       (E) the Securing America's Federal Elections Act, or the 
     SAFE Act (S. 2238 of the 116th Congress), to provide funding 
     for States to improve the administration of elections, 
     including by enhancing technology and election security, 
     replacing antiquated voting systems, and meeting new 
     standards for administering elections; and
       (F) other voting rights legislation that seeks to advance 
     voting rights and protect elections in the United States;
       (5) 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;
       (6) 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
       (7) 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.

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