[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 183 (Thursday, September 22, 2022)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 57793-57794]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-20695]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 87 , No. 183 / Thursday, September 22, 2022 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

[[Page 57793]]

                Proclamation 10452 of September 19, 2022

                
National Voter Registration Day, 2022

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                The right to vote is the foundation of our democracy--
                it defines us as Americans and serves as the 
                cornerstone of our liberty. With it, anything is 
                possible in America; without it, nothing is. It is a 
                legacy passed down by our greatest leaders--a legacy 
                which provides each one of us with a voice in the 
                creation of a better Nation. It is the source of our 
                power as citizens, our mightiest tool of social 
                transformation, and the stabilizing tradition that 
                confers legitimacy to our system of Government. Each 
                year on National Voter Registration Day, we reaffirm 
                our conviction that democracy only works when everyone 
                can participate, and we encourage all eligible 
                Americans to register to vote.

                Our Nation has not always lived up to its promise of 
                equal access to the right to vote, and so many 
                Americans have struggled, suffered, and died fighting 
                for a say in the destiny of our country. From Seneca 
                Falls, New York, to Selma, Alabama, to Washington, DC--
                and across America--ordinary people have organized to 
                protest disenfranchisement and won. The efforts of 
                these courageous women and men have led to the passage 
                of landmark civil rights legislation like the Voting 
                Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act, and 
                the Help America Vote Act, which extended the blessings 
                of democracy to millions of citizens. Lately, however, 
                those protections have been weakened by decisions of 
                the Supreme Court of the United States. Now, State 
                legislatures are passing new forms of voting 
                restrictions to limit participation and choose whose 
                vote can count at all. As the late Representative John 
                Lewis, an icon of the voting rights struggle, would 
                say, ``democracy is not a state; it is an act.'' Our 
                Founding Fathers understood this, as did the 
                suffragists at the National Women's Rights Convention 
                of 1848, the other giants of the Civil Rights Movement, 
                and today's activists working for a freer, fairer, and 
                more accessible voting system. Just as securing and 
                protecting voting rights was the test of their times, 
                it continues to be the challenge of ours.

                As President, I will do everything in my power to 
                protect the right to vote and ensure that every 
                American has a free and fair opportunity to exercise 
                this fundamental liberty. This means appointing highly 
                qualified advocates to the Department of Justice and 
                doubling the agency's voting rights enforcement staff 
                to ensure the Department has the resources to fight 
                voter suppression in the courts. It also means issuing 
                an Executive Order to establish a whole-of-government 
                effort to promote access to voter registration and 
                election information, especially in some of our most 
                underserved communities. I have directed my 
                Administration to take historic action to help college 
                students and veterans register effectively. I continue 
                to call on the Congress to pass the Freedom to Vote Act 
                and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. These 
                laws would address election subversion, remove dark 
                money from politics, end partisan gerrymandering, and 
                fix the gaping holes in voter access left by the 
                Supreme Court of the United States. They would also 
                allow the Justice Department to halt discriminatory 
                laws before they go into effect.

[[Page 57794]]

                In celebration of National Voter Registration Day, let 
                us honor the heroes who fought to secure voting rights 
                and expand them. I call on all eligible Americans to 
                ensure that their registration is up to date and to 
                encourage their family, neighbors, and friends to do 
                the same. Let us all remain engaged with the ongoing 
                struggle to build an America where every vote matters 
                and where every citizen has the ability and the right 
                to participate freely in the democratic process. We 
                cannot give up now. The future of our Nation depends on 
                it. To learn more about how to register or check your 
                voter registration information, you can visit vote.gov.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of 
                the United States of America, by virtue of the 
                authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws 
                of the United States, do hereby proclaim September 20, 
                2022, as National Voter Registration Day. I call on all 
                eligible Americans to observe this day by ensuring that 
                they are accurately registered and by committing to 
                cast a ballot in upcoming elections.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                nineteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord 
                two thousand twenty-two, and of the Independence of the 
                United States of America the two hundred and forty-
                seventh.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 2022-20695
Filed 9-21-22; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3395-F2-P