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. BENNET, 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 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 02:05 Sep 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR695.IS SR695

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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 that were 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 

that were designed to suppress the right of those individuals 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 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, 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 unchalVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:05 Sep 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR695.IS SR695

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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 disenfranchised minorities through tactics that include ‘‘cracking’’, 

diluting the voting power of minorities across many districts, 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 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 at least 23 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, and the elimination of same-day registration; 

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 voters’ rights and overturned by the courts; 


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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 minority communities, which have been disproportionately 

impacted and disenfranchised due to the COVID–19 pandemic, and their access to the ballot; 

Whereas addressing the challenges of administering upcoming 

elections in 2020 and beyond requires increasing the accessibility of vote-by-mail and other limited-contact options to ensure the protection of voters’ health and safety 

amid a global pandemic; 

Whereas, as voting by mail becomes a safer and more accessible 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 successfully conducting elections; 

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 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 ensure that, through the registration of voters and awareVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:05 Sep 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR695.IS SR695

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ness of elections, the democracy of the United States includes all citizens of the United States: Now, therefore, 

be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) designates September 2020 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) commemorates— 

8 (A) the 100th anniversary of Senate pas9 sage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitu10 tion of the United States, which guarantees 

11 women the right to vote; and 

12 (B) the legacy of generations of suffragists 

13 who fought to protect women’s rights at the 

14 ballot; 

15 (4) encourages Congress to pass— 

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

17 949 and H.R. 1 of the 116th Congress), to in18 crease voters’ access to the ballot, prohibit the 

19 use of deceptive practices to intimidate voters, 

20 end gerrymandering, create automatic voter 

21 registration, limit the power of restrictive voter 

22 identification laws, make critical investments in 

23 election infrastructure and technology, and adVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:05 Sep 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR695.IS SR695

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1 dress corruption in campaign finance and eth2 ics; 

3 (B) the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Ad4 vancement Act of 2020 (H.R. 4 of the 116th 

5 Congress) (introduced in the Senate as the Vot6 ing Rights Advancement Act of 2019 (S. 561 of 

7 the 116th Congress)), to restore the protections 

8 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 

9 10301 et seq.) that prohibit discriminatory vot10 ing practices, remove barriers to voting, and 

11 provide protections for minority voters in States 

12 with a history of voting discrimination; 

13 (C) the Natural Disaster and Emergency 

14 Ballot Act of 2020 (S. 4033 of the 116th Con15 gress), to ensure that every eligible voter in the 

16 United States is able to exercise the right to 

17 vote safely and securely during a declared state 

18 of emergency by, among other things— 

19 (i) guaranteeing no-excuse absentee 

20 voting; 

21 (ii) expanding early voting; 

22 (iii) providing self-sealing return enve23 lopes with prepaid postage for— 

24 (I) voter registration applica25 tions; 


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1 (II) absentee-ballot applications; 

2 and 

3 (III) absentee ballots; and 

4 (iv) providing accommodations for vot5 ers on Indian lands; 

6 (D) the Delivering for America Act (S. 

7 4527 and H.R. 8015 in the 116th Congress), to 

8 prohibit the United States Postal Service from 

9 making changes to operations or levels of serv10 ice that would reduce those operations or levels 

11 of service relative to those that were in effect on 

12 January 1, 2020, establish requirements for the 

13 processing of election mail, and provide addi14 tional funding for the Postal Service Fund; 

15 (E) the Securing America’s Federal Elec16 tions Act, or the SAFE Act (S. 2238 of the 

17 116th Congress), to provide funding for States 

18 to improve the administration of elections, in19 cluding by enhancing technology and election 

20 security, replacing antiquated voting systems, 

21 and meeting new standards for administering 

22 elections; and 

23 (F) other voting rights legislation that 

24 seeks to advance voting rights and protect elec25 tions in the United States; 


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1 (5) recommends that public schools and univer2 sities in the United States develop an academic cur3 riculum that educates students about— 

4 (A) the importance of voting, how to reg5 ister to vote, where to vote, and the different 

6 forms of voting; 

7 (B) the history of voter suppression in the 

8 United States before and after passage of the 

9 Voting Rights Act of 1965; and 

10 (C) current measures that have been taken 

11 to restrict the vote; 

12 (6) encourages the United States Postal Service 

13 to issue a special John R. Lewis stamp during the 

14 month of September— 

15 (A) to honor the life and legacy of John R. 

16 Lewis in supporting voting rights; and 

17 (B) to remind people in the United States 

18 that ordinary citizens risked their lives, 

19 marched, and participated in the great democ20 racy of the United States so that all citizens 

21 would have the fundamental right to vote; and 

22 (7) invites Congress to allocate the requisite 

23 funds for public service announcements on television, 

24 radio, newspapers, magazines, social media, bill25 boards, buses, and other forms of media— 


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1 (A) to remind people in the United States 

2 when elections are being held; 

3 (B) to share important registration dead4 lines; and 

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

Æ 


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