IV 
110TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 424 
Calling on the Attorney General to protect the right to vote of every person 
in the United States by promptly and thoroughly investigating complaints 
of violations of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the National Voter 
Registration Act of 1993, and the Help America Vote Act of 2002. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 23, 2008 
Ms. WATERS (for herself, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. WATT, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, 
Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, Ms. LEE, 
Mr. BUTTERFIELD, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. GRIJALVA, Ms. WASSERMAN 
SCHULTZ, Mr. MEEKS of New York, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, Ms. NOR-
TON, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. CLAY, Mr. CLEAVER, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, 
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, Mrs. CAPPS, Mr. FARR, Mr. LEWIS of Georgia, Ms. 
WOOLSEY, Mr. RUSH, Mrs. CHRISTENSEN, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Mr. 
ELLISON, Mr. MCGOVERN, Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California, and Mr. AL 
GREEN of Texas) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which 
was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Calling on the Attorney General to protect the right to vote 
of every person in the United States by promptly and 
thoroughly investigating complaints of violations of the 
Voting Rights Act of 1965, the National Voter Registra-
tion Act of 1993, and the Help America Vote Act of 
2002. 
Whereas the 15th amendment to the Constitution provides 
the right to vote to citizens and prohibits the denial or 
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•HCON 424 IH 
abridgement of this right based on race, color, or pre-
vious condition of servitude; 
Whereas section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 pro-
vides that no person, acting under color of law or other-
wise, shall intimidate, threaten, or coerce, or attempt to 
intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person for voting or 
attempting to vote or otherwise intimidating or denying 
any eligible person from voting; 
Whereas the Voting Rights Act of 1965 forbids any State or 
political subdivision to enact any election law to deny or 
abridge voting rights based on race or color; 
Whereas the Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits any person, 
whether acting under color of law or otherwise, from fail-
ing or refusing to permit any qualified person from vot-
ing in general, special, or primary Federal elections, re-
fusing to count the vote of a qualified person, or intimi-
dating anyone attempting to vote or any one who is as-
sisting a person in voting under provisions of the Voting 
Rights Act; 
Whereas the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended in 1970, 
provides that a person otherwise qualified to vote shall 
not be denied the right to vote in a presidential election 
because of an extended duration residency requirement; 
Whereas the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended in 1975, 
added section 203 to increase the participation of lan-
guage minorities by requiring bilingual elections in cer-
tain circumstances; 
Whereas as originally enacted, section 2 forbade any jurisdic-
tion in the country to enact an election law that denies 
or abridges voting rights on account of race or color; 
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•HCON 424 IH 
Whereas the 1975 amendments added minorities to this sec-
tion as a protected class; 
Whereas the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended in 1982, 
effectively overturned a 1980 United States Supreme 
Court ruling in Mobile v. Bolden, and modified the stand-
ard of legal review to allow certain voting rights viola-
tions under section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 
to be proven by showing that an election law or procedure 
was adopted with a discriminatory purpose or had a dis-
criminatory effect; 
Whereas the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 pro-
hibits voters from being removed from rolls of registered 
voters as an election is approaching and also prohibits 
States from engaging in any effort to systematically re-
move voters from the list of eligible voters unless that ac-
tion was completed more than 90 days before the date of 
a Federal election and is applied in a nondiscriminatory 
manner that complies with the Voting Rights Act of 
1965; 
Whereas the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta 
Scott King Voting Rights Reauthorization and Amend-
ments Act of 2006 affirmed the existing statutory re-
quirements and also prohibited any person, whether act-
ing under color of law or otherwise, from failing or refus-
ing to permit any qualified person from voting in general, 
special, or primary Federal elections, refusing to count 
the vote of a qualified person, or intimidating anyone at-
tempting to vote or anyone who is assisting a person who 
is voting under provisions of the Act; 
Whereas he Voting Rights Reauthorization and Amendments 
of 2006 clarified the standard under section 5 for deter-
mining whether certain covered States or jurisdictions 
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•HCON 424 IH 
have enacted or seek to administer any voting qualifica-
tion or prerequisite to voting, or standard, or practice, or 
procedure with respect to voting that either has the pur-
pose or will have the effect of denying or diminishing the 
voting rights of United States citizens on account of race 
or color; 
Whereas the revision also instituted a cause of action in the 
United States District Court for the District of Columbia 
for declaratory judgment; 
Whereas under the Help America Vote Act of 2002, failure 
to provide a ballot to a voter seeking to exercise the right 
to vote is a violation of Federal law; 
Whereas reports from throughout the United States indicate 
organized, systematic efforts targeting vulnerable popu-
lations, including residents displaced by foreclosure and 
victims of natural disasters, are underway to attempt to 
exclude, prevent, deter, and discourage eligible voters 
from exercising his or her right to vote; 
Whereas complaints have been reported in Virginia, a State 
that is covered, in part, under section 5, alleging voter 
suppression schemes that have disseminated erroneous 
information regarding the impact of voter registration on 
students’ eligibility for financial aid where they are en-
rolled in school; 
Whereas such a systematic scheme by party or local officials 
to frustrate voters’ ability to exercise his or her right to 
vote runs afoul of the goals of the Voting Rights Act of 
1965; 
Whereas complaints have been reported in Michigan of a plan 
to systematically challenge voters whose names appear on 
State lists of foreclosed properties in a voter suppression 
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•HCON 424 IH 
scheme referred to as ‘‘Lose Your Home, Lose Your 
Vote’’; 
Whereas such a scheme would harass voters and potentially 
impair the rights of thousands of voters, many of whom 
are racial minorities; 
Whereas evidence shows that a disproportionate number of 
persons impacted by the current foreclosure and housing 
crisis are African-American, Latino, minority, and low-in-
come; 
Whereas in 2008, there have been at least 739,000 people in 
the United States who have entered foreclosure pro-
ceedings that may have affected their residential status; 
Whereas many of these people were targeted for predatory 
loans that loan originators knew or should have known 
were unaffordable to them over the life of the loan, par-
ticularly where the rate on the loan was scheduled to ad-
just after an initial teaser rate; 
Whereas others, particularly the elderly, were targeted for re-
verse mortgages and refinancings that threatened the 
ownership of the homes in which they have resided for 
many years; 
Whereas in 2008, thousands of people in the United States 
have had their residential status affected by Hurricanes 
and Tropical Storms Bertha, Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gus-
tav, Hanna, and Ike, as well as related floods and other 
natural disasters; 
Whereas the payment of insurance claims and delivery of gov-
ernment assistance are often delayed for months, even 
years, and leaves displaced residents unable to return to 
their homes; 
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