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