[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 110 (Tuesday, July 2, 2024)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E687-E689]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THE STATE OF VOTING RIGHTS IN AMERICA

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 25, 2024

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleagues for 
hosting this Congressional Black Caucus Special Order to discuss the 
issue at the heart of American democracy--our right to vote.
  This right is fundamental to our democracy and a threat to it is a 
threat to America itself.
  A crucial benchmark of progress and inclusion in this country has 
been the passage of one of the most important pieces of legislation in 
our nation's history--the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
  Signed in to law by President Johnson, this legislation helped to 
reinforce America's promise of a truly democratic Nation and our 15th 
Amendment prohibition on denying Black Americans the right to vote.
  The Voting Rights Act served as a beacon for full political 
participation and engagement in our nation for all Americans.
  Because of that law, I stand before you as Congresswoman Sheila 
Jackson Lee, the first African American woman Ranking Member of the 
House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, and a Senior Member on the 
Judiciary, Homeland Security, and the Budget Committees.
  On August 6, 1965, in the Rotunda of the Capitol and in the presence 
of such luminaries as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. 
Ralph Abernathy of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Roy 
Wilkins of the NAACP; Whitney Young of the National Urban League; James 
Foreman of the Congress of Racial Equality; A. Philip Randolph of the 
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; John Lewis of the Student Non-
Violent Coordinating Committee; Senators Robert Kennedy, Hubert 
Humphrey, and Everett Dirksen; President Johnson addressed the Nation 
before signing the Voting Rights Act:
  ``The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for 
breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which 
imprison men because they are different from other men.''
  The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was critical to preventing brazen voter 
discrimination violations that historically left millions of African 
Americans disenfranchised.
  In 1940, for example, only about 3 percent of African Americans 
living in the South were registered to vote.
  Poll taxes, literacy tests, and threats of violence were the major 
causes of these racially discriminatory results.
  In 1964, the year before the Voting Rights Act became law, there were 
approximately 300 African-Americans in public office, including just 
three in Congress.
  Few, if any, African Americans held elective office anywhere in the 
South.
  Because of the Voting Rights Act, today there are more than 9,100 
black elected officials, including approximately 60 members of 
Congress, the largest number ever.
  Additionally, for the first time in our history, we have a Vice 
President, Kamala D. Harris, the first woman, first Black person and 
first Asian American to be sworn into that role.
  Furthermore, we have the first Black woman, Ketanji Brown Jackson, 
serving as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
  The Voting Rights Act opened the political process for many of the 
approximately 7,000 Hispanic public officials that have been elected 
and appointed nationwide, including 56 of whom serve in Congress.
  Native Americans, Asians and others who have historically encountered 
harsh barriers to full political participation also have benefited 
greatly.
  The crown jewel of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is Section 2, which 
prohibits the implementation of voting practices or procedures that 
discriminate on the basis of race, color, or membership in one of the 
language minority groups identified in Section 4(f)(2) of the Act.
  Historically, section 5 of the Voting Rights Act provided the crucial 
pre-clearance formula--a vital proactive measure to determine which 
states and jurisdictions were required to preclear new voting laws with 
the Department of Justice or a Federal Court.
  For nearly 50 years, section 5 of the Voting Rights Act and the 
preclearance formula outlined in section 4 moderated many of the

[[Page E688]]

worst abuses and resulted in many states adopting voting laws and 
redistricting plans with an eye to satisfying the concerns of minority 
voters.
  Despite Section 5's long history and crucial role in ensuring our 
democracy was by all the people and for all the people, 11 years ago 
the Supreme Court made a disastrous decision that crippled the Voting 
Rights Act and endangered voting rights nationwide.
  In its 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision, the Supreme Court 
gutted the VRA, striking down section 4's crucial preclearance formula, 
rendering the proactive protections of section 5 unusable.
  No longer could the Voting Rights Act take a proactive, preemptive 
role to stopping discriminatory legislation.
  Since then, the need to protect the right to vote and safeguard our 
democracy has never been more urgent.
  Following the Shelby County decision, state legislatures have 
targeted voters and erected deliberate barriers to the ballot box in 
what amounts to the most concerted effort to restrict voting access in 
generations. These new restrictive, discriminatory voting laws have 
included closing polling stations and reducing their hours, curbing 
early voting and vote by mail options, imposing strict ID requirements, 
limiting access to multi-lingual voting materials, and making more 
difficult to register to vote.
  According to the Brennan Center for Justice, at least 31 states have 
passed 103 restrictive voting laws since the Shelby County v. Holder 
decision in 2013 (as of May 2024). These measures disproportionately 
impact voters of color, Native American voters, voters with 
disabilities, and the elderly.
  A 2018 Brennan Center report concluded that states previously covered 
under the preclearance formula have purged voters off their rolls at a 
significantly higher rate than non-covered jurisdictions now that their 
new laws are no longer subject to the same level of oversight.
  However, threats to voting rights nationwide have not stopped there.
  The Supreme Court has continued to undermine key provisions of the 
Voting Rights Act.
  In July 2021, in its Brnovich v. DNC and Arizona Republican Party v. 
DNC, the Supreme Court upheld racially discriminatory voter 
restrictions in Arizona despite evidence that these laws were 
intentionally designed to target Latino and other minority voters.
  In doing so, the Court further weakened the Voting Rights Act, making 
it harder to challenge discriminatory laws under Section 2's anti-
discrimination provisions.
  Yet, the threats have not stopped there.
  With the 2024 election approaching, voting rights have never been 
more important and yet have increasingly come under fire.
  Since January of 2024, at least six states have enacted seven 
restrictive laws.
  Some states have spent the past few years piling on restrictions.
  Voters in 28 states will face new restrictions that weren't in place 
in the last presidential election.
  These include a new law in Alabama and Idaho that broadly 
criminalizes certain forms of assistance with absentee voting and mail 
ballots, limiting voting access for elderly voters, voters with 
disabilities, and those with limited access to transportation.
  Indiana enacted a law that heightens the chances that naturalized 
citizens will be wrongly removed from the voting rolls.
  A new law in Tennessee restricts the time frame voters have to 
request an absentee ballot.
  A new Arizona law shortens the period during which voters may correct 
issues with their signatures on mail ballots.
  A new West Virginia law now requires county clerks to cancel the 
registrations of voters who get out of state driver's licenses, 
creating a burden on students, military members, and others who 
temporarily reside outside the state but intend to return and therefore 
remain eligible to vote in West Virginia.
  In my home state of Texas, new restrictions have been implemented on 
absentee voting and new legislation empowers the state to more freely 
purge voter rolls--a process that often results in legitimate voters 
unknowingly being removed and finding themselves unable to vote come 
November.
  In the face of all these threats, what can be done to preserve voting 
rights?
  One crucial step is the passage of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights 
Advancement Act.
  This landmark legislation would restore and modernize the protections 
of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
  In doing so, it would protect the right to vote and safeguard our 
democracy by preventing restrictive, discriminatory voting laws from 
taking effect.
  It does so by establishing a new modern-day framework to determine 
which states and localities have a recent history of discrimination and 
require such jurisdictions to preclear new election changes, preventing 
restrictive and discriminatory voting laws from taking effect.
  In other words, it revives and refreshes the preclearance formula for 
the modern era, enabling Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act to once 
again preemptively prevent threats to voting rights.
  It also restores Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by eliminating 
the heightened standard required to challenge discriminatory voting 
laws created by the Supreme Court in Brnovich v. DNC.
  Voting rights should not be a partisan issue.
  It is the duty and responsibility of Congress to safeguard voting 
rights across our Nation.
  Our freedom to vote is our most sacred and fundamental right.
  It is the right upon which all our other rights rest, and allows us 
to determine the future of our communities and families, and ensure 
opportunities for all.
  Since enactment, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been reauthorized 
five times with large, bipartisan majorities.
  The VRA's most recent authorization occurred in 2006 when it passed 
unanimously in the U.S. Senate (98-0) and was signed by Republican 
President George W. Bush.
  There is no reason that the effort to restore the VRA to its full 
strength should be any different.
  While Republicans veered away from this bipartisan tradition last 
Congress, opposing the bill in the House and blocking debate in the 
Senate, this Congress provides a new opportunity to side with the 
American people and the fundamental principle that everyone has an 
equal opportunity to have their voice heard and vote counted.
  We must reject the cynicism that Republicans at the highest level 
have espoused when talking about making voting more accessible for all.
  Allowing every eligible vote to be cast and counted is not a ``power 
grab.''
  For democracy to work for all of us, it must include us all, no 
matter our background.
  The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would restore and 
modernize the essential portion of the Voting Rights Act that blocks 
discriminatory voting policies before they go into effect, creating a 
transparent process for protecting everyone's freedom to vote.
  I have also repeatedly introduced legislation that further enshrines 
our voting rights.
  H.R. 42--the Coretta Scott King Mid-Decade Redistricting Prohibition 
Act prohibits a state where the congressional districts have been 
redistricted after a decennial census from carrying out another 
redistricting until after the next apportionment of Representatives 
following a decennial census, unless a court requires the state to 
conduct a subsequent redistricting to comply with the Constitution or 
enforce the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
  This legislation was also a response to the Shelby County decision, 
as after the 2020 census, many state legislatures redrew aggressive new 
measures now that they were no longer subject to preclearance.
  For example, Republicans in North Carolina converted a congressional 
map that elected 8 Republicans and 5 Democrats into one that could 
elect 11 Republicans and just 3 Democrats.
  The North Carolina map was skewed in a way that targets Black 
political power, meaning that a state that is 20 percent Black could 
have only a single Black member of Congress representing them.
  Congressional maps in Texas, Ohio, and Georgia are also all 
considered severe partisan gerrymanders.
  This redistricting cycle also saw unprecedented efforts to undermine 
the political power of Black, Hispanic, Asian and Native communities, 
especially in Southern states.
  While redistricting after a new census is almost always a partisan 
process, this bill protects the redistricting process from being 
employed too often to skew the maps even further.
  Under H.R. 42, once the first redistricting is complete after the new 
census, the state's maps cannot be redrawn again until the next census, 
unless a court mandates otherwise.
  Like the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, this is another 
vital piece of legislation that should receive broad support from my 
colleagues as it enshrines voting rights nationwide and preserves the 
legacy of the Voting Rights Act.
  Mr. Speaker, for millions of Americans, the right to vote protected 
by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a sacred treasure, earned by the 
sweat and toil and tears and blood of ordinary Americans who showed the 
world it was possible to accomplish extraordinary things.
  Let us honor their commitment and sacrifice by enshrining the 
legislative protections they fought for.

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