•HRES 1394 IH 
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 pro-
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 slav-
ery were denied full citizenship and prevented from vot-
ing by English literacy tests; 
Whereas, since the 1870s, minority groups such as Black 
Americans in the South have suffered from the oppres-
sive effects of Jim Crow laws that were designed to pre-
vent political, economic, and social mobility; 
Whereas, prior to 1919 and the ratification of the 19th 
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, 
women were denied the right to vote, and, even following 
the ratification of the 19th Amendment, many women re-
mained unable to vote long into the 20th century because 
of discriminatory State voting laws; 
Whereas Black Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native 
Americans, and other underrepresented voters were sub-
ject to violence, poll taxes, literacy tests, all-White pri-
maries, property ownership tests, and grandfather clauses 
that were designed to suppress the right of those individ-
uals to vote; 
Whereas 5,800,000 people in the United States are currently 
banned from voting because of a felony conviction, in-
cluding 1 in 16 Black adults, due to the shameful entan-
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•HRES 1394 IH 
glement 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 effec-
tively 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 provi-
sion in that Act that protected voters in States and local-
ities that historically have suppressed the right of minori-
ties to vote; 
Whereas, since the invalidation of the preclearance formula 
provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, gerry-
mandered districts in many States have gone unchal-
lenged 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’’, 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, 
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•HRES 1394 IH 
North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wis-
consin 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 equip-
ment in minority communities, requirement of photo 
identification, and the elimination of same-day registra-
tion; 
Whereas these policies could outright disenfranchise or make 
voting much more difficult for more than 80,000,000 mi-
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 vio-
late voters’ rights and overturned by the courts; 
Whereas the decision of the Supreme Court in Shelby County 
v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013), calls on Congress to up-
date the formula in the Voting Rights Act of 1965; 
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 mi-
nority communities, which have been disproportionately 
impacted and disenfranchised due to the COVID–19 pan-
demic, and their access to the ballot; 
Whereas addressing the challenges of administering future 
elections requires increasing the accessibility of vote-by- 
mail and other limited-contact options to ensure the pro-
tection of voters’ health and safety amid a global pan-
demic; 
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•HRES 1394 IH 
Whereas, as voting by mail becomes a safer and more acces-
sible 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 suc-
cessfully conducting elections; 
Whereas Congress must work to combat any attempts to dis-
mantle 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 relent-
less attack on the right to vote with more than 400 bills 
having been introduced to roll back the right to vote, in-
cluding such bills being introduced in almost every 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 20; 
and 
Whereas September 2022 would be an appropriate month to 
designate as ‘‘National Voting Rights Month’’ and to en-
sure that, through the registration of voters and aware-
ness of elections, the democracy of the United States in-
cludes all citizens of the United States: Now, therefore, 
be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
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•HRES 1394 IH 
(1) expresses support for the designation of 
‘‘National Voting Rights Month’’; 
(2) encourages all people in the United States 
to uphold the right of every citizen to exercise the 
sacred and fundamental right to vote; 
(3) encourages Congress to pass— 
(A) the For the People Act of 2021 (S. 
2093 and H.R. 1 of the 117th Congress), to in-
crease voters’ access to the ballot, prohibit the 
use of deceptive practices to intimidate voters, 
end gerrymandering, create automatic voter 
registration, limit the power of restrictive voter 
identification laws, make critical investments in 
election infrastructure and technology, and ad-
dress corruption in campaign finance and eth-
ics; 
(B) the Freedom to Vote Act (S. 2747 of 
the 117th Congress), to set basic national 
standards to make sure all people in the United 
States can cast their ballots in the way that 
works best for them, regardless of what ZIP 
code they live in, improve access to the ballot 
for people in the United States, advance com-
monsense election integrity reforms, and protect 
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