III 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 401 

Designating September 2021 as ‘‘National Voting Rights Month’’. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 30, 2021 

Mr. WYDEN (for himself, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. MERKLEY, Mr. MENENDEZ, Ms. 

DUCKWORTH, Ms. CANTWELL, Mr. REED, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Ms. HIRONO, 

Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. CARDIN, Ms. CORTEZ MASTO, Mr. BOOKER, Ms. 

SMITH, Mr. BROWN, Mr. KING, Mr. DURBIN, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. 

BENNET, Mr. WARNER, Mr. CARPER, Mr. HEINRICH, Mr. KAINE, and 

Mr. VAN HOLLEN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred 

to the Committee on the Judiciary 

RESOLUTION 

Designating September 2021 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 03:15 Oct 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR401.IS SR401

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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 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 individuals to vote; 

Whereas 5,200,000 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, dismantling the preclearance formula provision in that Act that protected voters in States and localVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:15 Oct 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR401.IS SR401

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ities 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 unchallenged 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 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; 


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Whereas, in 2016, discriminatory laws in North Carolina, 

Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Texas were ruled to violate voters’ rights and overturned by the courts; 

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 future 

elections requires increasing the accessibility of vote-bymail 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, 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 


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State and at least 31 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 is September 22; 

and 

Whereas September 2021 would be an appropriate month to 

designate as ‘‘National Voting Rights Month’’ and 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 2021 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 For the People Act of 2021 (S. 

9 2093 and H.R. 1 of the 117th Congress), to in10 crease voters’ access to the ballot, prohibit the 

11 use of deceptive practices to intimidate voters, 

12 end gerrymandering, create automatic voter 

13 registration, limit the power of restrictive voter 


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1 identification laws, make critical investments in 

2 election infrastructure and technology, and ad3 dress corruption in campaign finance and eth4 ics; 

5 (B) the Freedom to Vote Act (S. 2747 of 

6 the 117th Congress), to set basic national 

7 standards to make sure all people in the United 

8 States can cast their ballots in the way that 

9 works best for them, regardless of what ZIP 

10 code they live in, improve access to the ballot 

11 for people in the United States, advance com12 monsense election integrity reforms, and protect 

13 the democracy of the United States from relent14 less attacks; 

15 (C) the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Ad16 vancement Act of 2021 (H.R. 4 of the 117th 

17 Congress), to restore the protections of the Vot18 ing Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301 et 

19 seq.) that prohibit discriminatory voting prac20 tices, remove barriers to voting, and provide 

21 protections for minority voters in States with a 

22 history of voting discrimination; 

23 (D) the Democracy Restoration Act (S. 

24 481 of the 117th Congress), to restore Federal 

25 voting rights to citizens after release from imVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:15 Oct 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR401.IS SR401

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1 prisonment, honoring the responsibilities of citi2 zenship and civic engagement necessary for 

3 building healthy and safe communities, while 

4 welcoming the contributions of people returning 

5 home after imprisonment; and 

6 (E) 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; and 

18 (C) current measures that have been taken 

19 to restrict the vote; 

20 (5) encourages the United States Postal Service 

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

22 month of September— 

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

24 Lewis in supporting voting 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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