IV 

110TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. CON. RES. 424 

Calling on the Attorney General to protect the right to vote of every person 

in the United States by promptly and thoroughly investigating complaints 

of violations of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the National Voter 

Registration Act of 1993, and the Help America Vote Act of 2002. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 23, 2008 

Ms. WATERS (for herself, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. WATT, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, 

Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, Ms. LEE, 

Mr. BUTTERFIELD, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. GRIJALVA, Ms. WASSERMAN

SCHULTZ, Mr. MEEKS of New York, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, Ms. NORTON, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. CLAY, Mr. CLEAVER, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, 

Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, Mrs. CAPPS, Mr. FARR, Mr. LEWIS of Georgia, Ms. 

WOOLSEY, Mr. RUSH, Mrs. CHRISTENSEN, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Mr. 

ELLISON, Mr. MCGOVERN, Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California, and Mr. AL

GREEN of Texas) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which 

was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 

Calling on the Attorney General to protect the right to vote 

of every person in the United States by promptly and 

thoroughly investigating complaints of violations of the 

Voting Rights Act of 1965, the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, and the Help America Vote Act of 

2002. 

Whereas the 15th amendment to the Constitution provides 

the right to vote to citizens and prohibits the denial or 


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abridgement of this right based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude; 

Whereas section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 provides that no person, acting under color of law or otherwise, shall intimidate, threaten, or coerce, or attempt to 

intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person for voting or 

attempting to vote or otherwise intimidating or denying 

any eligible person from voting; 

Whereas the Voting Rights Act of 1965 forbids any State or 

political subdivision to enact any election law to deny or 

abridge voting rights based on race or color; 

Whereas the Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits any person, 

whether acting under color of law or otherwise, from failing or refusing to permit any qualified person from voting in general, special, or primary Federal elections, refusing to count the vote of a qualified person, or intimidating anyone attempting to vote or any one who is assisting a person in voting under provisions of the Voting 

Rights Act; 

Whereas the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended in 1970, 

provides that a person otherwise qualified to vote shall 

not be denied the right to vote in a presidential election 

because of an extended duration residency requirement; 

Whereas the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended in 1975, 

added section 203 to increase the participation of language minorities by requiring bilingual elections in certain circumstances; 

Whereas as originally enacted, section 2 forbade any jurisdiction in the country to enact an election law that denies 

or abridges voting rights on account of race or color; 


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Whereas the 1975 amendments added minorities to this section as a protected class; 

Whereas the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended in 1982, 

effectively overturned a 1980 United States Supreme 

Court ruling in Mobile v. Bolden, and modified the standard of legal review to allow certain voting rights violations under section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 

to be proven by showing that an election law or procedure 

was adopted with a discriminatory purpose or had a discriminatory effect; 

Whereas the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 prohibits voters from being removed from rolls of registered 

voters as an election is approaching and also prohibits 

States from engaging in any effort to systematically remove voters from the list of eligible voters unless that action was completed more than 90 days before the date of 

a Federal election and is applied in a nondiscriminatory 

manner that complies with the Voting Rights Act of 

1965; 

Whereas the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta 

Scott King Voting Rights Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006 affirmed the existing statutory requirements and also prohibited any person, whether acting under color of law or otherwise, from failing or refusing to permit any qualified person from voting in general, 

special, or primary Federal elections, refusing to count 

the vote of a qualified person, or intimidating anyone attempting to vote or anyone who is assisting a person who 

is voting under provisions of the Act; 

Whereas he Voting Rights Reauthorization and Amendments 

of 2006 clarified the standard under section 5 for determining whether certain covered States or jurisdictions 


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have enacted or seek to administer any voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, or practice, or 

procedure with respect to voting that either has the purpose or will have the effect of denying or diminishing the 

voting rights of United States citizens on account of race 

or color; 

Whereas the revision also instituted a cause of action in the 

United States District Court for the District of Columbia 

for declaratory judgment; 

Whereas under the Help America Vote Act of 2002, failure 

to provide a ballot to a voter seeking to exercise the right 

to vote is a violation of Federal law; 

Whereas reports from throughout the United States indicate 

organized, systematic efforts targeting vulnerable populations, including residents displaced by foreclosure and 

victims of natural disasters, are underway to attempt to 

exclude, prevent, deter, and discourage eligible voters 

from exercising his or her right to vote; 

Whereas complaints have been reported in Virginia, a State 

that is covered, in part, under section 5, alleging voter 

suppression schemes that have disseminated erroneous 

information regarding the impact of voter registration on 

students’ eligibility for financial aid where they are enrolled in school; 

Whereas such a systematic scheme by party or local officials 

to frustrate voters’ ability to exercise his or her right to 

vote runs afoul of the goals of the Voting Rights Act of 

1965; 

Whereas complaints have been reported in Michigan of a plan 

to systematically challenge voters whose names appear on 

State lists of foreclosed properties in a voter suppression 


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scheme referred to as ‘‘Lose Your Home, Lose Your 

Vote’’; 

Whereas such a scheme would harass voters and potentially 

impair the rights of thousands of voters, many of whom 

are racial minorities; 

Whereas evidence shows that a disproportionate number of 

persons impacted by the current foreclosure and housing 

crisis are African-American, Latino, minority, and low-income; 

Whereas in 2008, there have been at least 739,000 people in 

the United States who have entered foreclosure proceedings that may have affected their residential status; 

Whereas many of these people were targeted for predatory 

loans that loan originators knew or should have known 

were unaffordable to them over the life of the loan, particularly where the rate on the loan was scheduled to adjust after an initial teaser rate; 

Whereas others, particularly the elderly, were targeted for reverse mortgages and refinancings that threatened the 

ownership of the homes in which they have resided for 

many years; 

Whereas in 2008, thousands of people in the United States 

have had their residential status affected by Hurricanes 

and Tropical Storms Bertha, Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gustav, Hanna, and Ike, as well as related floods and other 

natural disasters; 

Whereas the payment of insurance claims and delivery of government assistance are often delayed for months, even 

years, and leaves displaced residents unable to return to 

their homes; 


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Whereas in Mississippi, efforts were made to place the selection for the special election for a United States Senate 

race near the bottom of the ballot among candidates for 

local office rather than near the top among the Federal 

races such as President and the other United States Senate race as required by State law in an attempt to cause 

the special election race to be overlooked; 

Whereas a State judge has ruled that the race be placed 

higher on the ballot, in order to not disenfranchise voters, 

but that decision was appealed to the State Supreme 

Court, which subsequently ruled such ballot placement 

did not comply with the law; 

Whereas complaints were reported in Maryland of fliers distributed in minority communities with erroneous election 

information, including incorrect election dates, for the 

purpose of suppressing minority voting participation; 

Whereas numerous complaints of deceptive practices and 

voter intimidation have been reported in Florida in recent 

presidential elections, including— 

(1) purging the names, disproportionately of African-Americans, from certain county voting lists; 

(2) eliminating, in error, thousands of individuals 

from registration lists on grounds that they were felons; 

(3) failing to provide bilingual ballots or access to 

translators and language assistance; 

(4) intimidating voters on their way to the polls by 

using unauthorized traffic checkpoints near a voting precinct; 

(5) intimidating voters with inaccurate information 

that if they have not paid taxes or child support that 

they cannot vote; 


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(6) changing designated polling places without advance notice or without adequate notice to the community; 

(7) sending voters from one precinct to another only 

for the individuals to find they were not on the registration lists or that it was too late to vote; and 

(8) failing to send requested absentee ballots to individuals and then refusing to let these same individuals 

vote when they appeared at the precinct to vote; 

Whereas in 2008, new complaints have been reported in Florida of a ‘‘No Match, No Vote’’ law which requires election officials to verify applicants’ drivers license numbers 

or the last four digits of their Social Security numbers 

by using government data bases and any errors, including 

simple typos, clerical errors, or even middle name 

changes, could lead to identification mismatches resulting 

in the invalidation of votes; 

Whereas press reports indicate that this new Florida ‘‘No 

Match, No Vote’’ law will be enforced less than 30 days 

prior to the State’s October 6, 2008, registration deadline for the November 4, 2008, elections, and because 

Florida is subject to section 5 of the Voting Rights Act 

of 1965, a pre-clearance review under section 5 should be 

undertaken by the Department of Justice before this new 

law is enforced to ensure that thousands of voters, including minorities and the working poor, are not adversely affected or disenfranchised by this new law; and 

Whereas, voter caging, or the selection of lists or databases 

of voters compiled for the purpose or intent of challenging voters, and other schemes relying on inaccurate, 

incomplete, incorrect, or otherwise misleading subject 

matter used to systematically challenge voters, when done 


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in a discriminatory manner, is a violation of section 2 of 

the Voting Rights Act of 1965: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 

2 concurring), That Congress calls on the Attorney General 

3 to— 

4 (1) protect the right to vote of every person in 

5 the United States by promptly and thoroughly inves6 tigating complaints of violations of the Voting 

7 Rights Act of 1965, the National Voter Registration 

8 Act of 1993, and the Help America Vote Act of 

9 2002; 

10 (2) exercise all the authorities and utilize all the 

11 resources provided by Congress to fully enforce Fed12 eral voting and civil rights statutes; 

13 (3) enjoin any efforts by individuals or organi14 zations to violate Federal voting and civil rights 

15 statutes by means of intimidation, suppression, or 

16 deceptive practices and to ensure that no eligible 

17 voter is denied the right to vote on November 4, 

18 2008, or in any early voting periods prior to Novem19 ber 4, 2008, including voting by mail and absentee 

20 ballots; and 

21 (4) prosecute those who violate Federal voting 

22 and civil rights statutes to the fullest extent of the 

23 law. 

Æ 


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