[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 11 (Tuesday, January 18, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S232-S233]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             VOTING RIGHTS

  Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, yesterday, we celebrated Martin Luther 
King, Jr., Day and honored civil rights leaders who fought against 
inequality and sacrificed so much to move our country closer towards 
justice for all. But this year, on a day when we should be coming 
together to commemorate these civil rights achievements and recommit to 
the road ahead, we are instead fighting a battle we thought was won 
decades ago.
  In 1957, Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his ``Give Us the 
Ballot'' address, where he said:

       The denial of this sacred right is a tragic betrayal of the 
     highest mandates of our democratic tradition.

  But here we are in 2022 fighting back against hundreds of bills 
introduced in States across the Nation clearly intended to make it so 
much harder for certain people to vote.
  Twenty-two States have already enacted 47 new laws that make it more 
difficult to vote by mail, that make it harder to stay on voting lists, 
that limit the availability of drop boxes for ballots, that limit the 
number of polling locations, that impose stricter or newer voter ID 
requirements, and the list goes on. But one of the most insidious is 
Georgia's law which allows any person to challenge the rights of an 
unlimited number of voters to cast their ballots.
  If someone decides for whatever reason to challenge another person's 
right to vote, the voter then has to show up to their election office 
to defend themselves. Imagine being a single mom working two jobs and 
unable to afford childcare, and now she has to defend her 
constitutional right just because someone thought she shouldn't be 
voting at all.
  Volunteers are already being recruited to pose these challenges. This 
isn't voter protection; this is vigilantism. These laws are clearly 
intended to target communities of color and make it harder for them to 
vote, period.
  Our country's legacy of racial discrimination in voting is 
undeniable, and it is undeniable that we are witnessing history repeat 
itself.

  In 1890, the House passed historic legislation that would have 
increased voting protections, particularly for Black voters, but the 
Senate failed to take up this legislation, failed to act at a critical 
time when it had the chance, and the results were devastating for 
decades to come. The Senate's failure to take up this legislation 
allowed Jim Crow and the plummeting of voter

[[Page S233]]

turnout among Black voters to continue for more than half a century, 
until the Senate passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting 
Rights Act of 1965 over 70 years later.
  A recent Washington Post analysis said that this current wave of 
voter suppression bills potentially amounts to ``the most sweeping 
contraction of ballot access in the United States since the end of 
Reconstruction.''
  Today, these attacks on our freedom to vote are taking us back to the 
time of Reconstruction.
  We cannot wait another 70 years for this so-called deliberative body 
to act, which is why we need to pass comprehensive voter protection 
legislation. But not a single Republican supports the Freedom to Vote: 
John Lewis Act. Many of my Republican colleagues have joined 
Congressman John Lewis to commemorate the March from Selma to 
Montgomery, but today they won't even allow the Senate to consider 
legislation named in his honor and have called this bill radical. There 
is nothing radical about protecting a person's freedom to vote. What is 
radical is sending us back to the days of Reconstruction.
  This legislation would restore and strengthen the Voting Rights Act, 
which Congress reauthorized with broad bipartisan support five times--
1970, 1975, 1982, 1992--and it passed 98 to 0 in 2006, which included 
10 currently sitting Senate Republicans.
  This bill would also expand opportunities to vote, prevent voter 
suppression, and improve election security. We are talking about 
provisions that would require States to offer early voting and no-
excuse vote-by-mail, make election day a public holiday, crack down on 
voter intimidation, and require postelection audits. Again, I ask, how 
is any of this radical? What is radical is justifying overt attacks on 
our democracy by perpetuating the Big Lie of mass voter fraud.
  For Republicans, this fight isn't about election security; it is 
about securing their power, because Republicans have decided that 
spreading misinformation and rigging elections by preventing people 
from voting is the only way they will retain their power.
  Republicans should come to the Senate floor and tell the American 
people why they won't protect our freedom to vote. Instead, the 
Republican leader came to the floor to attack Democrats for fighting to 
change Senate rules to pass this critical legislation, calling it a 
power grab.
  The Republican leader said that Democrats want to ``permanently 
damage this institution.'' He went on to say the filibuster is ``about 
compromise and moderation''--this from the Republican leader who refers 
to himself as the grim reaper as he prevents dozens of House-passed 
bills from being considered on the Senate floor; the same person who 
singlehandedly prevented President Obama from filling a vacancy on the 
Supreme Court for over a year, denying the will of nearly 66 million 
Americans who voted to give President Obama a second term in office; 
the same person who pushed through President Trump's Supreme Court 
nominee as over 159 million Americans were in the process of voting. So 
much for compromise and moderation.
  Let's not pretend this is about the sanctity of this institution. We 
cannot sit back and let one political party continue to unravel the 
threads of our democracy one voter suppression bill at a time. While 
Republicans do nothing to protect our freedom to vote in the face of 
mass voter suppression bills enacted across the country, we Democrats 
cannot sit back and let 2020 be the last free and fair election in our 
country.
  If we don't protect the right to vote, we won't have a democracy. It 
is that simple. That is the reality. Since the Republicans will not 
lift a finger to protect voting rights, we have no option but to change 
the Senate rules in order to pass the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis 
Act. This is something that every single Democratic Senator needs to 
get on board with.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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