III 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 309 

Designating September 2019 as ‘‘National Voting Rights Month’’. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019 

Mr. WYDEN (for himself, Mr. BENNET, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. BOOKER, Mr. 

BROWN, Ms. CANTWELL, Mr. CARDIN, Mr. COONS, Ms. DUCKWORTH, 

Mr. DURBIN, Ms. HARRIS, Ms. HIRONO, Mr. JONES, Mr. KAINE, Mr. 

MARKEY, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. MERKLEY, Mrs. MURRAY, Mr. SANDERS, 

Ms. SMITH, Mr. UDALL, and Mr. VAN HOLLEN) submitted the following 

resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

RESOLUTION 

Designating September 2019 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 prohibited, 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 slavVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:30 Sep 12, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR309.IS SR309

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ery were denied full citizenship and prevented from voting by English literacy tests; 

Whereas, since the 1870s, minority groups such as African 

Americans in the South have suffered from the oppressive effects of Jim Crow laws designed to prevent political, economic, and social mobility; 

Whereas African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and other underrepresented voters were 

subject to violence, poll taxes, literacy tests, all-White primaries, property ownership tests, and grandfather 

clauses; 

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 disenfranchised groups to vote, among other reasons; 

Whereas, in 2013, the Supreme Court of the United States 

invalidated section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 

dismantling the preclearance formula provision in that 

Act that protected voters in States and localities that historically have suppressed the right of minorities to vote; 

Whereas, since the invalidation of the preclearance formula 

provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, gerrymandered districts in many States have gone unchallenged or have become less likely to be invalidated by the 

courts; 


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•SRES 309 IS 

Whereas these gerrymandered districts have been found to 

have a discriminatory impact on traditionally disenfranchised minorities through tactics that include ‘‘cracking’’, 

diluting the voting power of minorities across many districts, and ‘‘packing’’, 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 Wisconsin 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 update the formula in the Voting Rights Act of 1965; 

Whereas some form of a restrictive voting law has been instituted in 22 States since 2013; 

Whereas these restrictive voting laws encompass cutbacks in 

early voting, voter roll purges, placement of faulty equipment in minority communities, requirement of photo 

identification—the procurement of which amounts to a 

modern day poll tax, and the elimination of same-day 

registration; 

Whereas these changes could outright disenfranchise or make 

voting much more difficult for more than 80,000,000 minority, elderly, poor, and disabled voters, among other 

groups; 

Whereas, in 2016, discriminatory laws in North Carolina, 

Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Texas were ruled to violate voters’ rights and overturned by the courts; 


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Whereas there is much more work to be done to ensure all 

citizens of the United States have the right to vote; 

Whereas National Voter Registration Day is September 25; 

and 

Whereas September 2019 would be an appropriate month to 

designate as ‘‘National Voting Rights Month’’: Now, 

therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) designates September 2019 as ‘‘National 

3 Voting Rights Month’’; 

4 (2) encourages all people in the United States 

5 to uphold the right of every citizen to exercise the 

6 sacred and fundamental right to vote; 

7 (3) encourages Congress to pass— 

8 (A) the For the People Act of 2019 (S. 

9 949 and H.R. 1 of the 116th Congress), to in10 crease voters’ access to the ballot, prohibit the 

11 use of deceptive practices to intimidate voters, 

12 end gerrymandering, create automatic voter 

13 registration, limit the power of restrictive voter 

14 identification laws, make critical investments in 

15 election infrastructure and technology, and ad16 dress corruption in campaign finance and eth17 ics; 

18 (B) the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 

19 2019 (S. 561 and H.R. 4 of the 116th ConVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:30 Sep 12, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR309.IS SR309

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1 gress), to restore the protections of the Voting 

2 Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301 et seq.) 

3 that prohibit discriminatory voting practices, re4 move barriers to voting, and provide protections 

5 for minority voters in States with a history of 

6 voting discrimination; 

7 (C) the Securing America’s Federal Elec8 tions Act, or the SAFE Act (S. 2238 and H.R. 

9 2722 of the 116th Congress), to provide fund10 ing for States to improve the administration of 

11 elections, including by enhancing technology 

12 and election security, replacing antiquated vot13 ing systems, and meeting new standards for ad14 ministering elections; and 

15 (D) other voting rights legislation that 

16 seeks to advance voting rights and protect elec17 tions in the United States; 

18 (4) recommends that public schools and univer19 sities in the United States develop an academic cur20 riculum that educates students about— 

21 (A) the importance of voting, how to reg22 ister to vote, where to vote, and the different 

23 forms of voting; 


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1 (B) the history of voter suppression in the 

2 United States before the passage of the Voting 

3 Rights Act of 1965; 

4 (C) current issues relating to laws passed 

5 after 1965 that restrict the right to vote; and 

6 (D) any actions taken by State and Fed7 eral Government officials since passage of the 

8 Voting Rights Act of 1965 that have created 

9 barriers to the exercise of the right to vote; 

10 (5) encourages the United States Postal Service 

11 to issue a special Fannie Lou Hamer stamp during 

12 the month of September to remind people in the 

13 United States that ordinary citizens risked their 

14 lives, marched, and participated in the great democ15 racy of the United States so that all citizens would 

16 have the fundamental right to vote; and 

17 (6) invites Congress to allocate the requisite 

18 funds for public service announcements on television, 

19 radio, newspapers, magazines, social media, bill20 boards, buses, and other forms of media to remind 

21 people in the United States when elections are being 

22 held and to urge people to get out and vote. 

Æ 


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