IV 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 1461 

Supporting the designation of September 2024 as ‘‘National Voting Rights 

Month’’. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 17, 2024 

Mr. VEASEY (for himself, Ms. ADAMS, Ms. BALINT, Ms. BARRAGA ́N, Mrs. 

BEATTY, Ms. BROWN, Mr. CARBAJAL, Mr. CARSON, Mr. CARTER of Louisiana, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. CLEAVER, Ms. CROCKETT, Ms. 

DELBENE, Mrs. DINGELL, Mr. GOLDMAN of New York, Mr. GREEN of 

Texas, Mr. GRIJALVA, Ms. NORTON, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Ms. 

KAMLAGER-DOVE, Mr. KIM of New Jersey, Ms. LEE of Pennsylvania, 

Ms. MCCLELLAN, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, Mrs. 

NAPOLITANO, Mr. NEGUSE, Mr. PALLONE, Ms. PLASKETT, Mr. RASKIN, 

Mr. SARBANES, Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, 

Ms. SEWELL, Ms. STEVENS, Mr. TONKO, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Ms. 

WILLIAMS of Georgia, and Ms. WILSON of Florida) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, 

and in addition to the Committees on House Administration, Science, 

Space, and Technology, Oversight and Accountability, Financial Services, 

Ways and Means, Natural Resources, Homeland Security, and Education 

and the Workforce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 

Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within 

the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

RESOLUTION 

Supporting the designation of September 2024 as ‘‘National 

Voting Rights Month’’. 

Whereas voting is 1 of the single most important rights that 

can be exercised in a democracy; 


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•HRES 1461 IH 

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

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

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

Whereas Black 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 

that were designed to suppress the right of those underrepresented individuals to vote; 

Whereas, as of 2022, 4,400,000 people in the United States 

were disenfranchised from voting because of a felony conviction, including 1 in 16 Black adults, due to the shameful entanglement of racial injustice in the criminal legal 

system and voting access in the United States; 

Whereas members of the aforementioned groups and others 

are currently, in some cases, subject to intimidation, 

voter roll purges, 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 


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•HRES 1461 IH 

Black Americans and other traditionally disenfranchised 

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 (52 U.S.C. 10303), 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 (52 U.S.C. 

10301 et seq.), gerrymandered districts in many States 

have gone unchallenged and have become less likely to be 

invalidated by the courts; 

Whereas gerrymandered districts in many States 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 the power 

of minority voters into 1 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, Wisconsin, 

Alabama, and Louisiana to be gerrymandered districts 

that were created to favor some groups over others; 

Whereas these restrictive voting laws encompass cutbacks in 

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

identification, and the elimination of same-day registration; 


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•HRES 1461 IH 

Whereas these policies 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 the rights of voters and were overturned by the 

courts; 

Whereas the decision of the Supreme Court of the United 

States in Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013), 

calls on Congress to update the formula in the Voting 

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

Whereas addressing the challenges of administering future 

elections requires increasing the accessibility of vote-bymail and other limited-contact options to ensure access to 

the ballot and the protection of the health and safety of 

voters, and access to the ballot amid a global pandemic 

like the Coronavirus Disease 2019 public health emergency; 

Whereas Congress must work to combat any attempts to dismantle or underfund the United States Postal Service or 

obstruct the passage of the mail as blatant tactics of 

voter suppression and election interference; 

Whereas following the 2020 elections there has been a relentless attack on the right to vote with more than 400 bills 

having been introduced to roll back the right to vote, including such bills being introduced in almost every State 

and at least 44 of such bills having been signed into law 

in 18 States; 

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

citizens of the United States have the right to vote 


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•HRES 1461 IH 

through free, fair, and accessible elections, and Congress 

must exercise its constitutional authority to protect the 

right to vote; 

Whereas National Voter Registration Day in 2024 is Tuesday, September 17; and 

Whereas September 2024 would be an appropriate month— 

(1) to designate as ‘‘National Voting Rights Month’’; 

and 

(2) to ensure that, through the registration of voters 

and awareness of elections, the democracy of the United 

States includes all citizens of the United States: Now, 

therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) expresses support for the designation of 

3 ‘‘National 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 Freedom to Vote Act (H. R. 11, S. 

9 1, 118th Congress), to set basic national stand10 ards to make sure all people in the United 

11 States can cast their ballots in the way that 

12 works best for them, regardless of what ZIP 

13 Code they live in, improve access to the ballot 

14 for people in the United States, advance com15 monsense election integrity reforms, and protect 


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•HRES 1461 IH 

1 the democracy of the United States from relent2 less attacks; 

3 (B) the Democracy Restoration Act of 

4 2023 (H. R. 4987, S. 1677, 118th Congress), 

5 to restore Federal voting rights to citizens after 

6 release from imprisonment, honoring the re7 sponsibilities of citizenship and civic engage8 ment necessary for building healthy and safe 

9 communities, while welcoming the contributions 

10 of people returning home after imprisonment; 

11 and 

12 (C) other voting rights legislation that 

13 seeks to advance voting rights and protect elec14 tions in the United States; 

15 (4) recommends that public schools and univer16 sities in the United States develop an academic cur17 riculum that educates students about— 

18 (A) the importance of voting, how to reg19 ister to vote, where to vote, and the different 

20 forms of voting; 

21 (B) the history of voter suppression in the 

22 United States before and after passage of the 

23 Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301 et 

24 seq.); and 


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1 (C) current measures that have been taken 

2 to restrict the vote; 

3 (5) expresses appreciation for the United States 

4 Postal Service having issued a special Representative 

5 John R. Lewis stamp— 

6 (A) to honor the life and legacy of Rep7 resentative John R. Lewis in supporting voting 

8 rights; and 

9 (B) to remind people in the United States 

10 that ordinary citizens risked their lives, 

11 marched, and participated in the great democ12 racy of the United States so that all citizens 

13 would have the fundamental right to vote; and 

14 (6) invites Congress to allocate the requisite 

15 funds for public service announcements on television, 

16 radio, newspapers, magazines, social media, bill17 boards, buses, and other forms of media— 

18 (A) to remind people in the United States 

19 when elections are being held; 

20 (B) to share important registration dead21 lines; and 

22 (C) to urge people to get out and vote. 

Æ 


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