III 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. RES. 822 

Designating September 2024 as ‘‘National Voting Rights Month’’. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 17, 2024 

Mr. WYDEN (for himself, Mr. COONS, Mr. KING, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. 

PADILLA, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, Mr. CARDIN, Mr. KAINE, Ms. CANTWELL, 

Ms. BALDWIN, Mrs. SHAHEEN, Mr. WELCH, Mr. CASEY, Ms. STABENOW, 

Mr. FETTERMAN, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. BROWN, Mr. BOOKER, Ms. BUTLER, 

Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. WARNER, Ms. HIRONO, Mr. REED, Mr. LUJA ́N, 

Mr. MARKEY, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Mr. SANDERS, Ms. SMITH, Mr. CARPER, and Mr. MERKLEY) submitted the following resolution; which was 

referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

RESOLUTION 

Designating September 2024 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 822 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, 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 

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 01:35 Sep 18, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR822.IS SR822

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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 2024 is Tuesday, September 17; and 

Whereas September 2024 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 2024 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, H. R. 

9 11, 118th Congress), to set basic national 

10 standards 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 

16 the democracy of the United States from relent17 less attacks; 

18 (B) the Democracy Restoration Act of 

19 2023 (S. 1677, H. R. 4987, 118th Congress), 

20 to restore Federal voting rights to citizens after 

21 release from imprisonment, honoring the reVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:35 Sep 18, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR822.IS SR822

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1 sponsibilities of citizenship and civic engage2 ment necessary for building healthy and safe 

3 communities, while welcoming the contributions 

4 of people returning home after imprisonment; 

5 and 

6 (C) other voting rights legislation that 

7 seeks to advance voting rights and protect elec8 tions in the United States; 

9 (4) recommends that public schools and univer10 sities in the United States develop an academic cur11 riculum that educates students about— 

12 (A) the importance of voting, how to reg13 ister to vote, where to vote, and the different 

14 forms of voting; 

15 (B) the history of voter suppression in the 

16 United States before and after passage of the 

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

18 seq.); and 

19 (C) current measures that have been taken 

20 to restrict the vote; 

21 (5) expresses appreciation for the United States 

22 Postal Service having issued a special Representative 

23 John R. Lewis stamp— 


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1 (A) to honor the life and legacy of Rep2 resentative John R. Lewis in supporting voting 

3 rights; and 

4 (B) to remind people in the United States 

5 that ordinary citizens risked their lives, 

6 marched, and participated in the great democ7 racy of the United States so that all citizens 

8 would have the fundamental right to vote; and 

9 (6) invites Congress to allocate the requisite 

10 funds for public service announcements on television, 

11 radio, newspapers, magazines, social media, bill12 boards, buses, and other forms of media— 

13 (A) to remind people in the United States 

14 when elections are being held; 

15 (B) to share important registration dead16 lines; and 

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

Æ 


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