Calling upon all candidates for Federal office to respect the American tradition of the peaceful transfer of power and reject any efforts to prevent people from exercising their right to vote.

IV 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. RES. 1159 Calling upon all candidates for Federal office to respect the American tradi- tion of the peaceful transfer of power and reject any efforts to prevent people from exercising their right to vote. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SEPTEMBER 29, 2020 Mr. PAYNE (for himself, Ms. MATSUI, Mr. WELCH, Mr. TAKANO, Mr. HUFFMAN, Ms. LEE of California, Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. MEEKS, Ms. NORTON, Mr. CARSON of Indiana, Ms. BASS, Mr. RUSH, Ms. JUDY CHU of California, and Ms. SPEIER) submitted the following resolu- tion; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary RESOLUTION Calling upon all candidates for Federal office to respect the American tradition of the peaceful transfer of power and reject any efforts to prevent people from exercising their right to vote. Whereas the 15th Amendment guarantees the right to vote shall not be denied on account of race or color; Whereas the 19th Amendment guarantees the right to vote shall not be denied on account of sex; Whereas, in 1964, the Supreme Court of the United States held that ‘‘The right to vote freely for the candidate of one’s choice is of the essence of a democratic society, and VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:42 Sep 30, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR1159.IH HR1159 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HRES 1159 IH any restrictions on that right strike at the heart of rep- resentative government.’’; Whereas the 20th Amendment states that the term of the President ends at noon on the 20th day of January; Whereas since George Washington left office in 1797, every transfer between Presidential administrations has been peaceful; Whereas the 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016 elections featured the winner of the popular vote losing the electoral college, but still resulted in a peaceful transfer of power; Whereas, on September 23, 2020, in response to the question ‘‘Win, lose, or draw in this election, will you commit here, today, for a peaceful transferal of power after the elec- tion?’’ President Trump responded ‘‘Well, we’re going to have to see what happens. You know that. I’ve been com- plaining very strongly about the ballots. And the ballots are a disaster.’’; and Whereas when given the opportunity to clarify his statement, President Trump stated that ‘‘We want to have—get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very trans—we’ll have a very peaceful—there won’t be a transfer, frankly; there’ll be a continuation. The ballots are out of control. You know it.’’: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 1 (1) calls upon all candidates for Federal office 2 to respect the American tradition of the peaceful 3 transfer of power; and 4 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:42 Sep 30, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR1159.IH HR1159 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HRES 1159 IH (2) firmly rejects any effort to ‘‘get rid of the 1 ballots’’ or in any way prevent people from exer- 2 cising their right to vote. 3 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:42 Sep 30, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\HR1159.IH HR1159 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS