IV 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 703 

Supporting the designation of September 2023 as ‘‘National Voting Rights 

Month’’. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 

Mr. VEASEY (for himself, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Ms. MENG, Ms. DELBENE, Mr. EVANS, Ms. NORTON, Ms. 

BARRAGA ́N, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. COSTA, Mr. 

DAVID SCOTT of Georgia, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, Mr. RASKIN, Mr. 

CA ́RDENAS, Ms. SEWELL, Ms. STEVENS, Ms. WILLIAMS of Georgia, Mr. 

CARTER of Louisiana, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. DOGGETT, Mr. TONKO, Mr. 

KRISHNAMOORTHI, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Ms. PLASKETT, Mr. TAKANO, Ms. 

WILSON of Florida, Mr. KIM of New Jersey, Mr. SARBANES, Ms. LEE

of California, Ms. TLAIB, Ms. ADAMS, Mr. CARSON, Ms. BROWN, Mr. 

GREEN of Texas, Mr. MULLIN, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, and Mr. SCOTT

of Virginia) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 

Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on House 

Administration, 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 2023 as ‘‘National 

Voting Rights Month’’. 

Whereas voting is 1 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 proVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Sep 20, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR703.IH HR703

kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
2 

•HRES 703 IH 

hibited, 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 5,800,000 people in the United States are currently 

banned 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 

Black Americans and other traditionally disenfranchised 

groups to vote, among other reasons; 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
3 

•HRES 703 IH 

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; 

Whereas these policies could outright disenfranchise or make 

voting much more difficult for more than 80,000,000 miVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Sep 20, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR703.IH HR703

kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
4 

•HRES 703 IH 

nority, 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 

through free, fair, and accessible elections, and Congress 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
5 

•HRES 703 IH 

must exercise its constitutional authority to protect the 

right to vote; 

Whereas National Voter Registration Day in 2023 is Tuesday, September 19; and 

Whereas September 2023 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 (S. 1, 118th 

9 Congress), to set basic national standards to 

10 make sure all people in the United States can 

11 cast their ballots in the way that works best for 

12 them, regardless of what ZIP Code they live in, 

13 improve access to the ballot for people in the 

14 United States, advance commonsense election 

15 integrity reforms, and protect the democracy of 

16 the United States from relentless attacks; 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
6 

•HRES 703 IH 

1 (B) the Democracy Restoration Act of 

2 2023 (S. 1677, 118th Congress), to restore 

3 Federal voting rights to citizens after release 

4 from imprisonment, honoring the responsibil5 ities of citizenship and civic engagement nec6 essary for building healthy and safe commu7 nities, while welcoming the contributions of peo8 ple returning home after imprisonment; and 

9 (C) other voting rights legislation that 

10 seeks to advance voting rights and protect elec11 tions in the United States; 

12 (4) recommends that public schools and univer13 sities in the United States develop an academic cur14 riculum that educates students about— 

15 (A) the importance of voting, how to reg16 ister to vote, where to vote, and the different 

17 forms of voting; 

18 (B) the history of voter suppression in the 

19 United States before and after passage of the 

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

21 seq.); and 

22 (C) current measures that have been taken 

23 to restrict the vote; 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
7 

•HRES 703 IH 

1 (5) expresses appreciation for the United States 

2 Postal Service having issued a special Representative 

3 John R. Lewis stamp— 

4 (A) to honor the life and legacy of Rep5 resentative John R. Lewis in supporting voting 

6 rights; and 

7 (B) to remind people in the United States 

8 that ordinary citizens risked their lives, 

9 marched, and participated in the great democ10 racy of the United States so that all citizens 

11 would have the fundamental right to vote; and 

12 (6) invites Congress to allocate the requisite 

13 funds for public service announcements on television, 

14 radio, newspapers, magazines, social media, bill15 boards, buses, and other forms of media— 

16 (A) to remind people in the United States 

17 when elections are being held; 

18 (B) to share important registration dead19 lines; and 

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

Æ 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB