Hannah fried is the director of all voting is local. A collaborative Leadership ConferenceEducation Fund in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties union foundation. And two president ial campaigns, spent several years in federal Government Services at the department of justice and the Environmental Protection agency, welcome. I know i am not doing this Barbara Arnwine is national cochair of the National Commission for voter justice. Barbara arnwine is also president and founder of the transwoman of Justice Coalition and served on the warrant committee for civil rights under law from february 1989 to june 2015. Barbara arnwine is renowned for contributions on critical justice issues including passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1991 in the 2006 reauthorization of the Voting Rights act. Welcome. Denise lieberman is director of advance projects power and democracy and a senior attorney. She works to identify and remove systemic barriers to voting. A seasoned constitutional and civil rights lawyer Denise Lieberman works in missouri in addition to advancing broad Voter Protection initiatives engaging in political analysis, legal advocacy, litigation and Community Building to advance Electoral Reform including spearheading a nationwide effort to combat repressive voting legislation in the past year. Welcome. Miss casey served as executive chief officer of the league of women voters in the United States of the United States where she is leading the organization to appear at Rapid Transformation and growth focusing on building power by engaging in advocacy, legislation, litigation and organizing efforts around issues of Voting Rights and democracy reform. Prior to joining the league in 2018 she served as coo of customs and organization at the forefront of the immigrant Rights Movement representing 100,000 members. You will see a lighting system in front of you. The light will turn green, when you have one minute left you will see the yellow late and when you see the red light wrap up. Hannah fried, youre recognized for five minutes. Movers of the subcommittee, i am hannah fried, the Campaign Director for all voting is local, the Collaborative Campaign of the Leadership ConferenceEducation Fund. We fight to illuminate discriminatory barriers to voting before they happen. Since 2018 we worked in arizona, florida, ohio, pennsylvania and wisconsin. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. Our election system is broken. In 2016 problems at the polls prevented 1 million voters from casting a ballot. These problems disproportionately harm voters of color, young people, voting from americans and voters with disabilities. And it has two Decades Congress has recognized the need for strong federal protections for the right to vote passing a help america vote act in 2002 in reauthorizing the Voting Rights act in 2006. The past strong bipartisan support and robust record. Despite this, in 2013, five Supreme Court justices gutted critical protections for the Voting Rights act and since the shelby case, states and localities across the country have erected barriers without critical safeguards. Federal protections for voting are as vital today as they have been in the past century. They were allotted for record turnout but eligible americans voted at a rate of less than 50 in faced insurmountable obstacles. State officials purged voters for not voting from 2018, georgias secretary of state brian kemp purged 1. 4 million voters. Some states are more committed to purchase than ensuring inaccurate listening in this process. In 2018 georgias exact match law questioning the registration status and 50,000 voters over minor inconsistencies in their registration records. Recently ohio secretary of state admitted the purge system was rife with errors just shy of half 1 million ohioans, many africanamerican and low income voters would be purged under this law system. In 2018 voters placed polling place changes. Alicia Conference Education Fund democracy diverted report found section 5 states, there were 1173 fewer polling places in 2018 than in 2014. Despite the record turnout, 31 latino closed 171 polling locations after 2012 the most of any county studied in the report. Widespread polling place changes lead to the overuse of provisional ballots which are Campaign Analysis was 717 former section 5 counties found voters with more polling place closures are more likely to be asked to cast a provisional ballot. Contemplated provisional ballots would be used as a failsafe but they are less likely to be counted than a regular ballot. There overuse is the canary in the a minds niggling systemic problems that result in voters not knowing how or where to vote. Campaign analysis of provisional ballot usage has some strong connections. In pennsylvania voters in philadelphia county, 41 africanamerican are 5 times as likely to get a provisional ballot and voters in allegheny, 12. 7 black, or burke, 4 black and. Africanamerican students face unique barriers to voting, voters kept a disproportionate number of probation a ballot and twice as likely to have ballots rejected and voters countywide. And 40 in 2018 florida and m university, the sole public hb you, the only major public campus without an early vote site. In 2018 voters of color were more likely to have problems voting by mail and analysis by all voting is local of our state found voters in mostly White Communities are less likely to have mail in ballots rejected and voters living in communities of color, in arizona, over 1 of native American Voters are on the states permanent early voting list compared to 80 of nonAmerican Voters. In 2018 strict voter id laws targeted african American Voters with surgical provision at the Fourth Circuit in 2016. Last all our campaign helped hundreds of wisconsin voters through the arduous process of complying with the strict voter id law which was found to deter from voting 20 of africanamerican registered voters compared to 8. 3 of right registering. Election it ministration practices can and should be used to expand access to the ballot for all eligible americans. Too often they are a barrier to voting disenfranchising, voters of color. Congress must restore and expand safeguards of the right to vote ensuring every eligible american regardless of race, income, age or ability can make their voice heard. Thank you. Thank you very much. Ranking member davis and members of the subcommittee. I serve as the chief executive officer at the league of women voters in the United States. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on Voting Rights and Election Administration in america. An issue of paramount importance to our organization. The league of women voters is nonpartisan, founded 100 years ago in 1920 by men who understood the importance of securing Voting Rights for women. The district of colombia with 764 local affiliates in every Congressional District it outlawed Racial Discrimination voting and established procedures to protect equal access to vote for everyone. Despite a long history of support for legislators of all political parties, in 2013 the Supreme Court overturned key provisions in the case of shelby county. Since that decision politicians across country of past unnecessarily restrictive legislation and adopted practices that discriminate and disenfranchise voters of color and minorities whose first language is not english. Making it harder for them to register and more difficult to vote. These restrictive legislative initiatives include an effort on voter id requirement in texas, wisconsin and pennsylvania. The league pushed back against efforts to roll back early voting hours in ohio and push back against efforts to roll back and aluminate reforms like preregistration and Different Administration in north carolina. Ethan shelley the shelby decision weakened the Voting Rights act as a mechanism to fight discrimination by striking down preclearance and oversight provision. These oppressive laws have major impact on our election. Excessive long lines in urban areas where minorities reside consolidation of polling sites with little or no notice, reduction in early voting hours that limit participation, massive voter purchase with no effective notice for registration barriers on election day. In adequate numbers of machines where early voting showed a clear influx in voter participation. Because these issues show up in areas with large minority populations in states like georgia, florida, north carolina, arizona, michigan, ohio, and texas, it is unlikely the scheme was incidental or unintentional but instead expressly targeted the growing population of the new american majority including minority use and income sensitive individuals. In effect these oppressive laws shut out the new american majority and denied citizens the protection of their right to vote. With these minority targeted voting barriers for the 116th congress has a momentous opportunity to restore Voting Rights in this country. The opportunity to strengthen the Voting Rights act by creating a new formula that will trigger preclearance of certain changes to voting laws and administrative practices is immediate now more than ever. The creation of a National Notification process that lets all voters know changes to election processes occur in shores voters are informed prior to them showing up to the polls on election day. Of congress failed to act immediately the redistricting cycle to occur without a fully functioning Voting Rights act that will allow states to push through unjustifiable changes to their laws that will have direct impact on voters for a decade. Without continued oversight to protect voters from all backgrounds, the league of women voters and to inform and protect voters affected by policies and practices. That should not be the sole role of the league and our partners, the responsibility of government to create enforce laws for the democracy our forefathers designed to foster an open, transparent government powered by the people for the people. It is the duty of government to protect the rights of voters and encourage participation in the political system, not barriers to prevent participation as we have are 100 years of looking forward to working across the aisle to determine points of consensus for any and all Voting Rights legislation considered before congress and look forward to working with elected leaders to uphold their responsibilities, ensuring voters have the ability to exercise their right to vote. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on restoring the Voting Rights act and i look forward to working with you all on this important mission. You are recognized for five minutes. The subcommittee thanks you for testifying on this important topic. I dedicate my remarks to the memory of elijah cummings. My name is Barbara Arnwine. Ive artie been introduced. I recognize the commission for voter justice which was conceived by jacksons senior, represented here today by reverend todd yuri of baltimore and i want to make sure we get this into the record that this commission was formed in july 2017 to respond to the myriad Voter Suppression. When Donald Trumps manifold assertions of pervasive voter fraud and subsequent creation of the now defunct president ial Advisory Commission on election 70 we felt there was an urgent need to counter his dangerous and erroneous narrative and provide a truthful account of the urgent need for protection of our democracy from the insidious threat in the modern era of Voter Suppression. I created the map of shame in april 2011 which was the First National to expose and educate the American Public about the rise of contemporary Voter Suppression measures which i released a map saying it is formidable and substantial regiment of disenfranchising barriers to the ballot box, ability to have votes counted for millions of eligible but vulnerable voters. This is launched in january 2018, the commission tells a series of hearings for 14 states looking at Voting Rights and has engaged in many Voter Education and other efforts. One thing we heard in june 2018 from professor donald jones of the university of miami was the only proper way to look at the era we are in is understanding when it comes to Voting Rights, america is facing its second civil war. That is how extreme this period is. This reality of an active war against the rights of american citizens to exercise the right to vote and have their votes counted is supported by mounting evidence when we consider the myriads of Voter Suppression laws passed, the multitude of Voting Rights cases filed in the state and federal courts, the numerous reports documenting access by states that impair the right of citizens to vote and have their vote counted and continuing negative cases from the Supreme Court on the threat of social media as documented by the select Senate Commission investigation report. We also have created a new tool and document called the 61 forms of Voter Suppression. Let me be very clear that a year ago this was less than 30. The creativity, insidious this, rapid expansion of Voter Suppression measures is that extreme and it is growing. If i were to do this today would probably ask more formally that shows you how creative the states are being and how persistent they are being in pursuing this. Are major finding of our hearings have been already expressed by some of the testimony but i want to make clear one point. There are two really critical things we need to appreciate today. One is when shelley versus holder was decided we were only 18 months into the regimen of modern Voter Suppression. We are now eight years deep into this regiment. And the congress now knows more than the Supreme Court back in 2013. You have substantially more evidence about the impact of the absence of a preclearance mechanism. The second thing i want to make clear is nothing in the world can substitute for preclearance to prevent Racial Discrimination and in this era of massive Voter Suppression is clumsy and ineffective regimen is not enough so we want to commend congress for this hearing, we would like to move into the record and the testimony of reverend Jesse Jackson the 61 forms of Voter Suppression and i would like to expand my remarks, thank you. With no objections so ordered. Thank you very much. You are now recognized for five minutes. Thank you, members of the committee for holding this important hearing on Voting Rights and Election Administration. My name is Denise Lieberman, director of power and democracy at the project national office, it is a National RacialJustice Organization working in partnership with grassroots organizations to develop communitybased solutions inspired by the tactics that produce the earlier landmark civil rights victories. We are proud to stand behind many partners on the ground and states, fighting battles for Racial Justice and the right to vote and the need is great. We are faced with the greatest battle for the solvency of our democracy since the post reconstruction era. Particularly gratified at the subcommittee has chosen to have a people panel. Because to protect the right to vote in the need for congress to take definitive action to secure the right to vote for all citizen lies in the lived experiences of people for whom protection is most needed and people whose voices are most often silenced. At the end of the day the right to vote is about self determination. The right of people to make decisions about their own lives and their own destiny. It is about dignity. Society of structural mechanisms says you count, literally and so when the right to vote is denied or abridged it says you dont count so this is a very very personal matter as much as it is policy, we need to understand these statistics it is deeply rooted in basic Human Dignity of all people and we also know any remedial actions this body takes are going to need to be justified in legal challenges based on the record of the lived experiences of the people who these measures impact the most. The project is pleased to work in collaboration with other members of the Racial Equity anchor collaboratives to support the subcommittees field hearing that you held in the last 8 months documenting the state of Voting Rights in jurisdictions around the country. The collaborative members that include the incident project, asia and Pacific American health problems, the most favored action, the naacp, National Conference of american indians, national or the league and dedicated to advancing a Voting System that is free, fair and accessible to all regardless of race, ethnicity or language proficiency. In addition to helping identify leaders on the ground to testify, collaborative partners embarked on a request for efforts to lift up the voices of every day voters of color in their experiences so to complement the field hearings we conducted a series of peoples hearings in select states to gather firsthand accounts of Voter Suppression through the creation of a website we vote for voters across the country to share their voting experiences. We held hearings in states like alabama, north carolina, ohio, north dakota, south dakota, georgia, florida and texas and heard from voters firsthand. Witnesses there attested to other things, having to wait in long lines to check ballots, being denied by language assistances at the polls, being denied disability at the polls, having to restore registration status after an illegal purge, undertaking onerous barriers to restore their Voting Rights after a conviction, having to stand up to last minute changes, hours of operation and voter intimidation. The reports capture the impact of voter id laws, cuts to early voting with increasingly fierce polling places and everchanging locations which present a significant burden for those without easy access to transportation or in Flexible Work schedules. Results were clear. Since the loss of federal oversight in the postshelby era voters across the country are confronted with renewed barriers to casting a ballot. We documented these in a soontobe released report, the need for congressional action to secure the right to vote. Includes testimonies from African Americans, asian americans, native hawaiians, specific islanders, hispanics and native americans who provided gloves at the inner working of actual access to the ballot around the state and compel this body to take action to restore provisions of the Voting Rights act. What we saw around the countrys voters a lost confidence in the wake of the shelby decision and the ability of the terms of justice to secure their right to vote. We know that the shelby decision emboldened attacks on the right to vote not just in the around the country designed to curtail the growing political power of voters of color as they emerge into the new american majority. We thank you today, members of the committee, for holding this hearing. Please heed the word of voters across the country and take action to secure federal protections for the right to vote. Thank you so much. Mister aguilar is recognized for 5 minutes. I will stay with you and we can work our way down because you spoke about barriers in your new report. Talk to me about the most common barriers. We have gone around the country and seen quite a few. Talk to us about what your research tells you are the barriers you often find but if the panel could talk a little bit about vulnerable and emerging populations and the types of barriers those constituencies face. What we saw was voters were reporting difficulties of every step in the process from registering to vote to casting a ballot to having a ballot counted. We have seen a rise in this, the story Voter Registration procedures, onerous processes for being able to register to vote and onerous processes for people attempting to restore their right to vote after an illegal purge or after having their rights suspended due to a felony conviction. We just heard last week in louisiana during early voting from voters who, despite having gone to numerous Government Agencies in the wake of last years passage of h36 restored voting for people with felony convictions are still not able to cast a ballot despite having jumped through numerous hurdles. Those hurdles were pervasive throughout the processes through polling place closures and changes having to drive numerous hours, witnesses in alabama testified to the closure of over 30 locations, disproportionately African American counties after the state enacted a voter id law forcing people to drive four hours to get to the process. It can go on and on but these populations are significantly impaired. In north dakota witnesses testified to a county and lets get the ids in order to vote under that safe id law. So we found is they were per se pervasive throughout the voting process. We found that the population we looked at were africanamericans, latinos, native americans, asian americans, low income voters, voters with disabilities, student voters, voters with disabilities, student voters, formerly incarcerated persons, newly naturalized citizens, voters natural disasters and homeless folks, these are some of the most vulnerable voters, and they are really bearing the brunt of the Voter Suppression. But our calculation millions of votes have been denied or blocked from voting who come from those categories. Not to mention those for lgbtq and may have changed their identity name or Sexual Identity here we found other measures, the 61 forms captures a lot of these because thats how many there really are, theyre so many more but most of the ones you already heard, some of them such as our witnesses talk about targeted whole closures, exact match requirements for registration and for counting absentee ballots. They refused to put polling sites on campuses, a huge instance in florida and coming out of our hearing there was a lawsuit filed that challenge the refusal to put polling places on student campuses in florida fors early voting and they want it and theyre able to have those polling sites in 2018. We also heard about voter caging especially in michigan, and in many other states, texas, alabama. Voter purging, that was one of our first hearings that we really start realizing upfront, by the third. We knew that voter curbing was a huge problem in our country. I still think that realistically the ability to intercept and insight voter purging has been one of the weaker parts of our communities abilityur to respon. It is problematic, widespread and whether selectivity going on to stop it. Onerous voter id am failed to follow state procedures microsoft south carolina. They fail to follow their poll procedures asked to staffing of polling places, resulting in literally some of the longest lines in targeted minority neighborhoods. Weit also saw abuse of provisiol ballots become disparate impact between a white and people of color jurisdictions greeted by the failure to provide election equipment and staffing. Racial gerrymandering, early voting speeders i will have to cut you off. I just want speedy if you want the other two to quickly answer. Sorry. Thank you, yes. When we see people who have become re enfranchised and to be in great incarcerated. There are additional eggs acquiring them for example a fourday fine, restitution in order to be able to do that. Everything was amusing that we try to overcome those barriers, are the ones that are putting peoples faces. Recently we had a court decision, illegal voters part of that case, we now are very concerned that we are going to see partisan rhyming racial gender mentoring is partisan gender mentoring because there is basically a green live for that. Weve seen broken down election equipment. The league is on duty every election day of the year looking at every Congressional District. Looking at staying what is happening on the ground. We had a six hour line in georgia because of broken down voter equipment. And we are doing Rapid Response. It should not be the responsibility of nonprofit organizations like ours to have to do Rapid Response because of the government its not doing what theyre supposed to be doing to help those voters. Senior citizens Rural Communities minorities you have all having difficulty accessing id. Thirdparty Voter Registration commercialization, what recently happened in tennessee that we are able to fight back in, and once again. Since just these constant attacks that communities are facing and we need organizations like ours will be responsible for addressing these. Thank you. Thank you just by the way, the director of the women voters was on the purge list in ohio. Is ended and weve had monday situations like this. One of the ellis Voting Rights organizations in the country and work. Do not made it through very quickly. I will. Thank you. I would like to highlight from my fellow analysts have said, is that the problems that American Voters are facing, are not singular, they are stacking. A voter who has a problem i can take a voter id, then gets to the polling place and has to drive miles to get through the polling place in his line at the voting location. These problems are not singular in their origin. In our solutions are response to them, needs to be across the spectrum. Needs to be both federal statutory protections as well is state administered protections. Laws and practices that expand access to the ballot particularly in communities of color. Thank you. Let me just for a moment, pretend that im justice rober roberts. [laughter] and i would just like deep for you to make the case for why we should fully reinstate the writing act and what you think the frequenters should look like if you have any idea. Start at your end here. Thank you. Between 2013 and 2018, there were almost 1700 polling places the closed informer section five jurisdictions. The Leadership Conference aviles just earlier this fall report discussing these changes. 75 percent of those, happened between 2014 and 2018 despite the increase in turnout, and 2018. But her suppression is pervasive. Voters in this country face extraordinary barriers to the ballot. Our ability to vote and the ability purging lay of communities of color to vote, is frankly, miraculous in live of the barriers that they face. This is especially true in section five areas. But ideologues, a lack of access to early vote, particularly in communities of color. Restrictive hours of early vault, these problems are widespread and they are purse basic. We are seeing the kinds of improvements to them that we need to be. What preclearance loves to do is to understand not only that changes are happening with the impact that they have that went out preclearance, we can understand fully the impact on communities of color. It is vital to the preclearance be resort resort. Thank you. If you know justice roberts, [laughter] i would see that we have three bodies of government for a reason. That the Supreme Court his job is to surf is representative of the american people. And we see people his rights being violated, time and time again in the most fundamental rights that we have is citizens of this country is our right to vote. To have our voice heard. That the Supreme Court has a responsibility to protect that right so that every citizen is considered equal. We talked about equal on law. We should be equal in the ballot bucks. Enemies removing barriers for them for each citizen. To exercise the right i would see that there are already remedies that you will have in place. They have been proposed. Once we are really in favor of his formula on representative still. It is statewide having more violations over the past 25 years. At least one of which was committed by the state itself. And political subdivisions, three or more violations during a calendar years. On right violations of the 14th and 15 violation. You have all of this information. I dont want to waste is it too monday people time, theres just is it too much to read off. We support these formulas. And we think that Congress Must act. They must act now because we are coming into very serious collections in this coming year. Asking this question. Most of what you know talking about really goes back to the original, 14 or so jurisdictions. What about states like ohio this nut was not covered in preclearance. What about states like pennsylvania. In wisconsin. One of the things the Supreme Court was concerned about they were determined that state that the incisional record in the data is so old they cant prove that they should still be held to the same standard of preclearance. The leaving and breathing process meaning that it doesnt end after a certain amount of time that an annual basis we are able to look further been violations and is one of those protections are in place and we are seeing them happening. It has expanded. It hasnt gotten better. In fact his cutting worth in 2013, we have seen that time and time again. Thank you. First, and the shelby decision, you spoke very powerfully about the fact that we all recognize that there still exists this termination in voting. And you felt that congress had not done his job. Since then, congress has been very keen of looking at what are in fact modernday conditions. That exist between the states and among the states when it comes to voter accessibility and voter fairness. We know, at this. In this eight years that occurred since 2011, is that the states that were previously covered, by preclearance have in fact, and some of the worst records for not only holds closures but for purchase that literally millions of others have been affected by that. That those voters deserve the coverage and the protection of our law or country they did not have to be subjected to that the voter denial before they are able to have the votes counted properly that you also have you told this congress to come up with a new set of coverage formula. It is the design to look at both violations or that are the most extreme. They denied the most voters the right to participate. Says your directive, to congress. We held hearings, the impound and looked at reports of what is happening in those states, we are able to come up with a formula that captures for preclearance, states that are engaging in the worst activities. At the same time, we also have recognized that in this modern era we have got to come up with some additional standards that we just cant look at voter turnout anymore. We cant look at the old standards. Instead what we need to look at now, is to make sure that there is on notice provisions, to make sure our national skills, your concern that states are able to be held accountable. We believe we have done our job. And that you should uphold our new legislation. Thank you very much. I agree with everything my fellow panelists have said. Writing is on the wall here. In the first year after the shelby decision came down, 73 percent of the previously covered jurisdictions, introduced restrictive writing was. They been reintroduced in 25 states since 2010. We have seen through the stories of individuals that shelby has had mild not just a farmer preclearance statement states around the country. To continue to make voting harder and more confusing and more onerous and more burdensome. Not only that, not only did shelby open the door to discriminatory practices that wouldve been halted at the outset undercurrents but also made it more difficult to challenge those laws and duly placing the burden on already underrepresented voters of color and advocates. So since shelby that went out the laws stopgaps. The evidentiary burden and the cost associated with these challenges has fallen even more heavily on the very impacted communities but these laws are designed to protect. To this channel challenge denials of their fundamental right to vote. And so, it is very clear that that is simply not tenable. Its not working and congress has the opportunity right now before it with hr for tampa limit federal her name protections to place the burden where it should be on the pacs of the Government Agencies that are seeking to implement new restrictive running changes that show that they are not discriminatory. That i think you all can represent of the time. Thank you all for being here and i thank you for your testimony. Is much. The other hand i think has arrived yet. Right. Okay. Theyre on their way over. Thank you all again very very much. [b