Texas 2017 - 85th 1st C.S.

Texas House Bill HCR23 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	85S10417 KSM-D
2	2	By: Reynolds H.C.R. No. 23
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4	4
5	5	CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
6	6	WHEREAS, Since the U.S. Supreme Court eviscerated the Voting
7	7	Rights Act of 1965 with its decision in Shelby v. Holder, many
8	8	citizens have confronted new barriers to participation in our
9	9	democracy; and
10	10	WHEREAS, During the Civil Rights Era, the United States
11	11	Congress passed the Voting Rights Act to prevent government at all
12	12	levels from enacting laws or policies that deny American citizens
13	13	the right to vote based on race or ethnicity; one of the key
14	14	provisions, Section 5, requires jurisdictions with a history of
15	15	discrimination to obtain prior federal approval of changes to
16	16	voting rules that could affect minorities; for nearly five decades,
17	17	this provision, known as preclearance, served as a bulwark against
18	18	disenfranchisement, blocking discrimination before it occurred;
19	19	and
20	20	WHEREAS, On June 25, 2013, in its Shelby decision, a sharply
21	21	divided Supreme Court rendered Section 5 inoperable by invalidating
22	22	as antiquated Section 4(b), the formula used to determine the
23	23	states and localities covered by preclearance; absent
24	24	congressional resolve to update the formula, lawmakers in many
25	25	states and districts seized the opportunity to revive voting
26	26	changes that had been blocked, to move forward with changes
27	27	previously deterred, and to implement new discriminatory
28	28	restrictions; such measures included draconian voter ID laws, the
29	29	elimination of early voting opportunities, and the closing or
30	30	moving of hundreds and likely thousands of polling sites; all of
31	31	these actions, which disproportionately affected minorities,
32	32	low-income communities, people with disabilities, and students,
33	33	would previously have required federal approval under Section 5;
34	34	and
35	35	WHEREAS, Court rulings and studies alike have shown that in
36	36	the wake of Shelby, discrimination is widespread; in July 2016, the
37	37	Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down North Carolina's new
38	38	voting rules, noting that they targeted African Americans with
39	39	"surgical precision"; the nonpartisan Election Protection
40	40	coalition undertook a comprehensive review of the 2016 presidential
41	41	election and found a range of barriers to voting, including
42	42	improper enforcement of voter ID laws, dissemination of incorrect
43	43	or deceptive information, failure to provide information, and voter
44	44	intimidation; the organization concluded that without an
45	45	enforceable Section 5, approximately 24 percent of the nonwhite
46	46	voting-age population is more vulnerable to discriminatory
47	47	election practices; and
48	48	WHEREAS, For more than a half century, the Voting Rights Act
49	49	has been a vital means of squelching discrimination in the form of
50	50	inequitable redistricting plans, onerous voter ID laws, artificial
51	51	barriers to voting, elimination of early voting opportunities, and
52	52	unfair polling place changes; without a functioning Section 5,
53	53	however, expensive litigation is required to fight unjust voting
54	54	laws, and while legal proceedings drag on, countless voters are
55	55	denied the right to cast ballots; the Supreme Court left it to
56	56	Congress to modernize the formula to determine which states and
57	57	jurisdictions are to be covered by Section 5, and new legislation is
58	58	urgently needed that would restore and strengthen the Voting Rights
59	59	Act; and
60	60	WHEREAS, The United States was founded on the principle that
61	61	we are all created equal, and as the world's leading democracy, we
62	62	must set the standard for free, fair, and accessible elections in
63	63	which every vote is counted; now, therefore, be it
64	64	RESOLVED, That the 85th Legislature of the State of Texas,
65	65	1st Called Session, hereby urge the United States Congress to
66	66	restore and strengthen the Voting Rights Act of 1965; and, be it
67	67	further
68	68	RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
69	69	copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
70	70	the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of
71	71	Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the
72	72	members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that
73	73	this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a
74	74	memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.