III 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 350 

Designating September 2023 as ‘‘National Voting Rights Month’’. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 

Mr. WYDEN (for himself, Mr. CARPER, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mr. MARKEY, Ms. 

CANTWELL, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. PADILLA, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Mr. 

KAINE, Ms. STABENOW, Mr. CASEY, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, Ms. SMITH, Mr. 

LUJA ́N, Mr. COONS, Mr. WELCH, Ms. HIRONO, Ms. BALDWIN, Mr. 

BLUMENTHAL, Mr. BOOKER, Mr. SANDERS, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. KING, 

Mr. FETTERMAN, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. REED, Mr. MERKLEY, Mr. WARNER, 

Mr. BROWN, Ms. DUCKWORTH, and Mr. CARDIN) submitted the following 

resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

RESOLUTION 

Designating 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 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 


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•SRES 350 IS 

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; 

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 


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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 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 vioVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:21 Sep 20, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR350.IS SR350

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late 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 

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— 


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(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 Senate— 

2 (1) designates September 2023 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 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; 

17 (B) the Democracy Restoration Act of 

18 2023 (S. 1677, 118th Congress), to restore 

19 Federal voting rights to citizens after release 

20 from imprisonment, honoring the responsibil21 ities of citizenship and civic engagement necVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:21 Sep 20, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR350.IS SR350

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1 essary for building healthy and safe commu2 nities, while welcoming the contributions of peo3 ple returning home after imprisonment; and 

4 (C) other voting rights legislation that 

5 seeks to advance voting rights and protect elec6 tions in the United States; 

7 (4) recommends that public schools and univer8 sities in the United States develop an academic cur9 riculum that educates students about— 

10 (A) the importance of voting, how to reg11 ister to vote, where to vote, and the different 

12 forms of voting; 

13 (B) the history of voter suppression in the 

14 United States before and after passage of the 

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

16 seq.); and 

17 (C) current measures that have been taken 

18 to restrict the vote; 

19 (5) expresses appreciation for the United States 

20 Postal Service having issued a special Representative 

21 John R. Lewis stamp— 

22 (A) to honor the life and legacy of Rep23 resentative John R. Lewis in supporting voting 

24 rights; and 


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1 (B) to remind people in the United States 

2 that ordinary citizens risked their lives, 

3 marched, and participated in the great democ4 racy of the United States so that all citizens 

5 would have the fundamental right to vote; and 

6 (6) invites Congress to allocate the requisite 

7 funds for public service announcements on television, 

8 radio, newspapers, magazines, social media, bill9 boards, buses, and other forms of media— 

10 (A) to remind people in the United States 

11 when elections are being held; 

12 (B) to share important registration dead13 lines; and 

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

Æ 


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