A resolution designating September 2020 as "National Voting Rights Month".

III 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. RES. 695 Designating September 2020 as ‘‘National Voting Rights Month’’. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES SEPTEMBER 15, 2020 Mr. WYDEN (for himself, Mr. MERKLEY, Mr. KAINE, Mr. JONES, Mr. BEN- NET, 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 RESOLUTION Designating September 2020 as ‘‘National Voting Rights Month’’. 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 pro- hibited, 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 slav- VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:05 Sep 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR695.IS SR695 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 2 •SRES 695 IS ery were denied full citizenship and prevented from vot- ing by English literacy tests; Whereas, since the 1870s, minority groups such as African Americans in the South have suffered from the oppres- sive effects of Jim Crow laws that were designed to pre- vent political, economic, and social mobility; Whereas African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Na- tive Americans, and other underrepresented voters were subject to violence, poll taxes, literacy tests, all-White pri- maries, property ownership tests, and grandfather clauses that were designed to suppress the right of those individ- uals 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 disenfran- chised 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 provi- sion in that Act that protected voters in States and local- ities that historically have suppressed the right of minori- ties to vote; Whereas, since the invalidation of the preclearance formula provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, gerry- mandered districts in many States have gone unchal- VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:05 Sep 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR695.IS SR695 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 3 •SRES 695 IS lenged and have become less likely to be invalidated by the courts; Whereas these gerrymandered districts have been found to have discriminatory impacts on traditionally disenfran- chised minorities through tactics that include ‘‘cracking’’, diluting the voting power of minorities across many dis- tricts, 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 Wis- consin 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 up- date the formula in the Voting Rights Act of 1965; Whereas some form of a restrictive voting law has been insti- tuted in at least 23 States since 2013; Whereas these restrictive voting laws encompass cutbacks in early voting, voter roll purges, placement of faulty equip- ment in minority communities, requirement of photo identification, and the elimination of same-day registra- tion; Whereas these policies could outright disenfranchise or make voting much more difficult for more than 80,000,000 mi- nority, elderly, poor, and disabled voters, among other groups; Whereas, in 2016, discriminatory laws in North Carolina, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Texas were ruled to vio- late voters’ rights and overturned by the courts; VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:05 Sep 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR695.IS SR695 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 4 •SRES 695 IS 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 mi- nority communities, which have been disproportionately impacted and disenfranchised due to the COVID–19 pan- demic, and their access to the ballot; Whereas addressing the challenges of administering upcoming elections in 2020 and beyond requires increasing the ac- cessibility of vote-by-mail and other limited-contact op- tions to ensure the protection of voters’ health and safety amid a global pandemic; Whereas, as voting by mail becomes a safer and more acces- sible 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 suc- cessfully conducting elections; Whereas Congress must work to combat any attempts to dis- mantle 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 en- sure that, through the registration of voters and aware- VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:05 Sep 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR695.IS SR695 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 5 •SRES 695 IS ness of elections, the democracy of the United States in- cludes all citizens of the United States: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Senate— 1 (1) designates September 2020 as ‘‘National 2 Voting Rights Month’’; 3 (2) encourages all people in the United States 4 to uphold the right of every citizen to exercise the 5 sacred and fundamental right to vote; 6 (3) commemorates— 7 (A) the 100th anniversary of Senate pas- 8 sage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitu- 9 tion of the United States, which guarantees 10 women the right to vote; and 11 (B) the legacy of generations of suffragists 12 who fought to protect women’s rights at the 13 ballot; 14 (4) encourages Congress to pass— 15 (A) the For the People Act of 2019 (S. 16 949 and H.R. 1 of the 116th Congress), to in- 17 crease voters’ access to the ballot, prohibit the 18 use of deceptive practices to intimidate voters, 19 end gerrymandering, create automatic voter 20 registration, limit the power of restrictive voter 21 identification laws, make critical investments in 22 election infrastructure and technology, and ad- 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:05 Sep 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR695.IS SR695 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 6 •SRES 695 IS dress corruption in campaign finance and eth- 1 ics; 2 (B) the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Ad- 3 vancement Act of 2020 (H.R. 4 of the 116th 4 Congress) (introduced in the Senate as the Vot- 5 ing Rights Advancement Act of 2019 (S. 561 of 6 the 116th Congress)), to restore the protections 7 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 8 10301 et seq.) that prohibit discriminatory vot- 9 ing practices, remove barriers to voting, and 10 provide protections for minority voters in States 11 with a history of voting discrimination; 12 (C) the Natural Disaster and Emergency 13 Ballot Act of 2020 (S. 4033 of the 116th Con- 14 gress), to ensure that every eligible voter in the 15 United States is able to exercise the right to 16 vote safely and securely during a declared state 17 of emergency by, among other things— 18 (i) guaranteeing no-excuse absentee 19 voting; 20 (ii) expanding early voting; 21 (iii) providing self-sealing return enve- 22 lopes with prepaid postage for— 23 (I) voter registration applica- 24 tions; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:05 Sep 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR695.IS SR695 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 7 •SRES 695 IS (II) absentee-ballot applications; 1 and 2 (III) absentee ballots; and 3 (iv) providing accommodations for vot- 4 ers on Indian lands; 5 (D) the Delivering for America Act (S. 6 4527 and H.R. 8015 in the 116th Congress), to 7 prohibit the United States Postal Service from 8 making changes to operations or levels of serv- 9 ice that would reduce those operations or levels 10 of service relative to those that were in effect on 11 January 1, 2020, establish requirements for the 12 processing of election mail, and provide addi- 13 tional funding for the Postal Service Fund; 14 (E) the Securing America’s Federal Elec- 15 tions Act, or the SAFE Act (S. 2238 of the 16 116th Congress), to provide funding for States 17 to improve the administration of elections, in- 18 cluding by enhancing technology and election 19 security, replacing antiquated voting systems, 20 and meeting new standards for administering 21 elections; and 22 (F) other voting rights legislation that 23 seeks to advance voting rights and protect elec- 24 tions in the United States; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:05 Sep 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR695.IS SR695 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 8 •SRES 695 IS (5) recommends that public schools and univer- 1 sities in the United States develop an academic cur- 2 riculum that educates students about— 3 (A) the importance of voting, how to reg- 4 ister to vote, where to vote, and the different 5 forms of voting; 6 (B) the history of voter suppression in the 7 United States before and after passage of the 8 Voting Rights Act of 1965; and 9 (C) current measures that have been taken 10 to restrict the vote; 11 (6) encourages the United States Postal Service 12 to issue a special John R. Lewis stamp during the 13 month of September— 14 (A) to honor the life and legacy of John R. 15 Lewis in supporting voting rights; and 16 (B) to remind people in the United States 17 that ordinary citizens risked their lives, 18 marched, and participated in the great democ- 19 racy of the United States so that all citizens 20 would have the fundamental right to vote; and 21 (7) invites Congress to allocate the requisite 22 funds for public service announcements on television, 23 radio, newspapers, magazines, social media, bill- 24 boards, buses, and other forms of media— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:05 Sep 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR695.IS SR695 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 9 •SRES 695 IS (A) to remind people in the United States 1 when elections are being held; 2 (B) to share important registration dead- 3 lines; and 4 (C) to urge people to get out and vote. 5 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:05 Sep 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\SR695.IS SR695 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS