Participation in the u. S. Electoral process. Well call this hearing to order and thank everyone very, very much for being here today. We know its very busy with many things happening but its incredibly important that we be voting on basic we be talking about voting and the basic ten e ets of our democracy in terms of Voting Rights. Voting rights is the essential foundation of hurt democracy, and all of us who are here understand that. Every citizen who wants to vote is able to cast a vote must be at the top of congress agenda. At the local level, many of us have heard stories about how difficult voting can be. Whether its a grandmother who cant register to vote because she cant get her birth certificate, College Students prevented from registering to vote in a place where they go to school. Or even malfunctioning vote mag sheens that lead to long lines and voters who need to g back to work so they have to give up and leave the line. We have een sha over and over gn. 2016 was the first president ial election in half a century where the full voting funds act was not in effect. Since the Supreme Courts 2013 Shelby County decision striking down in the Voting Rights act, we have seen a lot of action on the state and local level. And while some states and local communities have improved access to voting, others have restricted it, often by targeting poor people and minority communities. We of seen numerous Voter Suppression laws passed a number of which have been struck down by the courts for being discriminatory. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal on North Carolinas strict voter i. D. Laws, which was struck down as we know last year by the fourth u. S. Circuit court of appeals. In its decision, the 4th circuit said the law would target africanamericans with almost surgical precision. But we cant just count on the courts doing right thing. Thats why senate depths continue to call for a proactive legislative agenda to increase the opportunity for people to exercise the right to vote in our country. Our members have introduced legislation on election securityer, expanding Voter Registration, creating more opportunities for voters to cast their ballots. Chief among our proposals is the Voting Rights advancement act sponsored by senator leahy, cosponsored by nearly the entire Senate Democratic caucus. Meanwhile, the Trump Administration continues to proprotomoat the unfounded narrative of widespread voter fraud with its socalled Election Integrity commission and its attempt to acquire a vast amount of personal information on american voters. Protecting Voting Rights should be bipartisan. I think all of us feel that way. Should be a nobrainer. It should be bipartisan. And thats why im very disappointed that republicans in congress have refused to hold any hearings on updating the Voting Rights act and on the state of Voting Rights in america, and theres why were here doing our own hearing. Senate democrats will continue to do all we can to protect the right to vote for tens of millions of americans and to find ways to eliminate restrictions on voting. On voti. I look forward to hearing from our expert witnesses today. I know its going to be a very productive discussion. All of my colleagues care deeply about this and the leaders in their states and all of you are true leaders in the fight to protect and strengthen the right to vote in our democracy. Were honored to have you taking the time to be with us today. Id like to turn to my colleagues from minnesota, senator amy, who is the Ranking Member on Senate Rules Committee to say a few words. Thank you very much. I think weve seen many of you several times in this week. Thank you for your advocacy. Unfortunately we havent had any hearings this year so im glad you that are welling to have this discussion about what is happening with voting. We have seen as the senator noted and the court has said efforts to discriminate with surgical precision. Three hour lines in arizona. Hundred miles to the nearest polling stae polling station in nevada and utah. Photo i. D. Wisconsin requirements in wisconsin where we know it can be difficult to get. This is a systematic effort across our country. What does the administration do . They make things worse by establishing the socalled commission on Election Integrity. This is not about integrity when you look at what theyre doing. And in fact, can make things worse by trying to gather information that Many Republican secretary of states have spoken out against and n one location that we try to avoid when we have decentralized voting systems. I dont think that was an accident either. They are simply making people concerned about voting and weve heard in some states like colorado that people actually took away their own registrations because they didnt want to have their data shared. Solutions . Well, same day registration. I note that minnesota had the highest voter turnout. I know that the honorable natalie tenant knows this, but we had the highest voter turnout of any state and are consistently in the top one or two. Thats because we have same day registration. I have a bill to do that nationally with senator tester and others. And then also automatic registration, a bill im introducing last week that would require automatic voting registration state by state for eligible voters when they turn 18. These are not radical proposals. These proposals that we should all support whether were democrats, republicans or independents because our democracy is founded on principle that citizens get to participate and we should be making it easy tore participaie and not harder. Thank you very much. Weve also asked senator shaheen to make some opening statements. There was a hearing in New Hampshire last week. Both senators i know were a part of this and wed like very much to get an update from senator shaheen. Well, thank you. Thank you for convening this hearing. Actually we had hoped to be a part of that but in fact they refused to allow us to have our testimony read as part of the commission. The fact is the Trump Administrations president ial Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, the Pence Commission is what i call it, held a hearing im sure last week and did exactly the opposite. It further misled americans and grand crusaders about the integrity of electoral process. I think as many here would agree that President Trump baseless assertions about Illegal Immigrants and illegal voting in the 2016 elections really has zero evidence to support them. The vice chair of that commission did a column in breitbart where he made allegations about our elections in New Hampshire in 2016, the election of senator hassen and Hillary Clinton who won the New Hampshire electoral vote and said we allowed out of state to vote. He clearly did not understand our election laws and he was corrected by both the secretary of state of New Hampshire and maine. What we have seen is the real objective of this commission is to lay the groundwork for Voter Suppression laws and we saw that at the hearing last week in New Hampshire. The people testifying before that panel recommended things like thumbprints on photo i. D. S, criminal background checks before people would be allowed to register to vote, and i think one of the important points to point out to people is that americans lose trust in their elections when politicians question the validity of those elections without evidence. You know, we had a hearing earlier today in the Foreign Relations committee and John Huntsman who has been nominated to be ambassador to russia was it was on his nomination. We talked about the russian interference in our elections in 2016. He said something that i think is really important. Speaks to what happens when elected officials undermine our process. He said, and i thought this was so important to repeat, for me as a former governor, youre tasked with the integrity of your election system. Sometimes you have nothing more important than the integrity of your election process at the localist of levels and to work to undercut or subvert or sew seeds of doubt of that system is the highest level of injury that can be laid a local election system. So i thought governor huntsman said that very well and it points to the fact that we cannot overstate the dangers that lie in spreading this kind of misinformation. The Pence Commission and its motive are not to investigate voter fraud. Theyre to intimidate voters, particularly students, minority voters, low income voters to persuade them from participating in our electoral process. Thank you to all the witnesses who are here today for helping us to shed light on what the real intent of this administration is. Thank you very much. I know that senator widen was going to be with us. I think he will be at some point. He wants to speak to his bill vote by mail act as well and we certainly look forward to that, but were going to turn now to very, very important guests that are with us. Sharon is the president of the naacp Legal Defense fund. The naacp Legal Defense fund through its litigation and advocacy has worked tirelessly to expand democracy and eliminate racial disparities. Welcome. Bonita gupta is the president of the Leadership Conference on civil and human rights pror. Ms. Gupta was the former head of the Civil Rights Commission at the department of justice. Dr. Wendal anthony, high great friend from detroit who is the president of the Detroit Branch of the naacp. Are we still the largest chapter . I believe we are. We have the largest annual dinner which you are all welcome to attend at any given time, 12,000 to 14,000 and the food is always hot. I have never figured it out. It is a powerful dinner. And reverend anthony is a respected civil rights leader and detroit in southeastern michigan in in our country and he has seen firsthand the effects of what voters and franchisement and voter gre depression can do to a community. Thomas signs. We are so pleased to have you with us as president and general counsel of the Mexican American and Legal Defense education fund. Through your litigation and advocacy work, you have been working to secure access to the voting both for all citizens. Raftly, natalie, manager of state advocacy on the brennan centers Voting Rights and elections process. During her tenure as secretary, she merged as a leader on election modernization. As you tell, we have a terrific panel and well start here. Thank you for convening this timely and important hearing and for the invitation to appear and share my views and to all of the senators who thought it was important to be here for this discussion. Id like to provide context for our discussion today and to explain why the current moment demands urgent gregz acticongre action, but also to address the issues that we heard in the introduction from the senator, the threat to a core and central piece of our democracy and that is the right to vote, the ability to participate in the political process. The organize i lead, the naacp Legal Defense fund, the case challenging the all white democratic primary in texas, 1944, and since that time weve continued until today working on this urgent issue that we regard as central to the full citizenship of africanamericans. After the violent acts of domestic terror in charlottesville americans have started a conversation with White Supremacy. I think thats a good thing. That conversation is long overdue. Its been somewhat encouraging. Political leaders of both parties have rebuked white supre supremacy. Last Week Congress condemned a measure condemning white supremacist. Those responses are appropriate and welcome but theyre incomplete. We cannot have a full conversation about White Supremacy in this country without talking also about the right to vote and we cannot fully defeat White Supremacy unless Congress Acts to ensure that state sponsor the truth is intimidation of black voters has always been central to american White Supremacy for decades. States and local jurisdictions suppressed votes with lit ras see tests and needlessly confusing registration requirements. Today they use strict voter i. D. Laws, proof of citizenship requirements and racial gerrymandering. Its the same discrimination in different forms. A federal court in texas recognizes much when it found the state voter i. D. Law and that decision is one of many. Since 2014 there have been at least ten federal Court Decisions finding that state or local government intentionally discriminated against africanamericans and other voters of color when enacting legislation. This is a watershed moment in this country. That means legislatures and count councils convening and passing laws for the purpose of disenfranchising american voters. I submitted for the record cases, including the Fourth Circuit decision that was referred to earlier. We add to this the president s socalled Election Integrity commission thats already been discussed. Its the subject of seven lawsuits. And we add to it also the attorney general Jeff Sessions who has pulled back on the prosecution of proven intentional discrimination in voting. We are witnessing a kind of perfect storm of Voter Suppression in which perhaps for the first time the federal government through this Election Integrity commission and the attorney general are also openly hostile to Voting Rights and actively supporting Voter Suppression. The federal courts are taking their time deciding these cases and the states of course are doing what the Reconstruction Congress knew they would do when they use the language in the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, no state shall or states are prohibited from. The framers of those amendments not only put limits on state contact that would undermine the full citizenship of africanamericans, they included enforcement clauses in each of the civil war amendments entrusting congress with the authority to enforce the right that were to give full citizenship to africanamericans. In 1965 a Bipartisan Congress responded with a Voting Rights act which for nearly years was the most effective civil rights statute in our nations history. But now we need so much more. We need the Voting Rights act to be restored. We need the legislation that many of you have sponsored. We need oversight . The department of justice. We need you to look at the Election Integrity commission. We need you to speak regularly loudly, clearly about the importance of the right to vote for every american. Thank you. Thank you very much. Ms. Gupta, welcome. Great. Thank you so much. All of you for convening this very important event. Im really honored to be here today. I am the president of the at the coalition of more than 200 national organizations. Including the 1965 Voting Rights act. Voting rights are today just under assault plain and simple. I think theres no question. You heard obviously everyone knows about the devastating Shelby County decision and about the North Carolina and texas courts speaking very clearly about the intentional race discrimination of those laws. And now about ten Voting Rights decisions that federal courts have now said they found intentional Racial Discrimination post shelby in the way that states reacted in enacting restrictive voting laws. I dont want to get into. That i do want to focus on something thats personally very heart breaking for me to witness which is the Sessions Justice Department retreat from the Justice Department historic and i would say bipartisan commitment to aggressive Voting Rights enforcement. It has always been an aggressive area of bipartisan enforcement in the february. In february they reversed a longstanding the texas voter i. D. Law was texas courts continued to uphold that finding despite the justice changing position n. Ju position. In june on the very same day the Civil Rights Division sent an unprecedented letter. It was never been sent to 44 states asking for extensive information on how states maintain their roles in what appears to be a prelude to voting purge efforts. In august the Justice Department filed a brief with the Supreme Court reversing its position very languaongstanding position. And then we have as you all know and weve talked about President Trump socalled Advisory Commission on Election Integrity which is really set up to investigate the president s rather absurd allegations that millions voted illegally in the 2016 election. We know that the real reason the commission was to restrict the right to vote and the commissions membership tells you all you need to know to the other commissioners who frankly have devoted their entire careers to Voter Suppression efforts and conspiracy theories about the mass voter fraud. And in fact, just last week hans was recently identified as a sender of an email to the Justice Department originally before the formation of the commission urging that no democrats or, quote, mainstream republicans be permitted to serve on the commission. This is now plain and simple for everyone to see. The commissions attempt to create a National Database with voter information should really alarm any of us who value privacy, security and the integrity of our elections. Thats why you saw so Many Republican and democratic secretaries of state speak out. Working hand in hand with other civil rights organizations, weve mounted a nationwide effort to discredit this commission and weve urged that congress deny appropriations to the Sham Commission and we appreciate the efforts that many of you are making to pursue that strategy. It also cuts the president antiVoting Rights crusade cuts across his agenda. It demonstrates the commissions tomorrow the Senate Judiciary committee is holding a hearing for thomas bar of North Carolina who has a long history of voting defender suppression efforts. We know its not enough to play defense. There are a number of pieces of legislation that the Leadership Conference colation has been vocally in support of from the Voter Empowerment act to the democracy restoration act to the Voter Registration act where we in the states have seen a lot of momentum, bipartisan momentum and somehow in congress were only seeing democratic sponsorship and we hope that will change. Along where these measures, we need a fully funded 2020 sense. Its among the most significant civil rights issues we face today. Accurate is essential to ensuring fair voter representation for all americans. We are working hard to ensure theres a fair appropriations. And then we urge finally for congress to exercise its oversight powers to closely monitor the Voting Rights that are coming out of the Justice Department and we hope that also youll find ways to ensure timely responses to write letters. We know that Voting Rights to have transcend partisan ship and we are fully there behind you to do everything we can in the long haul fight to ensure that everyones right to vote is protected. Thank you. Thank you very much. Reverend anthony, welcome. Thank you, senator and thank you all of you for being here and for calling this hearing. I think one of the prime benefits of this hearing is the fact that youre holding it. One of the reasons that people are not voting is because they do not have hope. They do not believe that their votes are making any differences because of the fact whaf of wha see nationally happening today. Years ago the great Freedom Fighter was speaking at a rally in upstate new york. While shes speaking, an elderly white gentleman said woman, what youre saying to me means about as much to me as that of a flea buzzing around the rear end of an elephant. The woman looked at the elephant and said you might not like my buzzing but im guaranteed to keep you scratching. It is important that we keep the elephant scratching today. Were here because we must continue to keep the elephant scratching because of the throes and Voting Rights. We must expose the political schemes designed to frus tatrat the peoples will and their right to vote. It is important to remember and reflect on the fact that what we see on the national level, one is not inspired by what we see. As a matter of fact, it has the very opposite significance. They do not inspire the people. They congress the people. Just last year the state legislature intended a more strenuous voter i. D. Law. Any individual who did not have identification would have been required to bring i. D. To their local Clerks Office within ten days of the election. Failure to do so would have resulted in dis qualification of the vote and thus would nullify the vote. Its hard enough to get folks to stand in line to vote so theyre not going to come back in ten days after an election to prove that they did vote. Its implementation would have resulted in many citizens in the africanamerican community, students and seniors not being eligible to vote based on finances to secure identification that was acceptable to the state. That bill was beat back by the pressure of the people and it was put off the table. Theres still a hunger of a racist hupg racist hunger to bring it back and bring other bills like that to the table. This socalled 13 member independent citizens commission, the socalled Election Protection or Integrity Commission that was instituted by the president , to us is no more than one of the biggest scams that weve ever seen in u. S. Political history. The fact that this committee is composed of all those persons quite frankly for the most part chris co vac, ken blackwell, Jay Christian adams knows or recently just had this law that basically is going to suppress some of the young peoples, students and disadvantaged by exercising their right to vote as a result of negative or difficult for them to get to the polls. It is important that as the that we consistently have and we update and we do engage in the Voting Rights advancement act of 2017 designed to repair and restore and strengthen the Voting Rights act of 1965. We urge the house and senate to endure and support hr 297 and 1419. Among those other things we believe that is important is to update and implement to cover states with a historical pattern for practicing discrimination. Guarantee no last minute voting change will affect voters. Protect voters from the voting changes that will most likely imfact peopi impact people of color. Support legislation in local communities that would allow the rejoin of district lines but communities ensure the Political Representation and eliminate jerry man derring. We have an initiative in michigan that is structured to put a bill on the ballot that would allow us to redraw the district lines not by the politician but by the local community folk. Increase same day registration. The use of social media must become a major priority. Text messaging, texting your vote, facebook, take a look at your vote. Snap chap. Twitter, your vote is but a tweet away. Instagram, you change your own future. Increase funds for updating equipment and training. There was a recent audit where the city was accused of having some voter fraud. The audit found there was no fraud. There was outdated machines. We have a National Holiday for national elections. Increase time allotted to participate in early and anse absentee voting. Teach the benefits and responsibilities of participation in the American Democratic process. The structure of our government and its ability to participate in the electoral process should be taught beginning in elementary through high school. It must not be placed on Political Party but on responsibility and civic duty. Were reminded of the words of alexis who said generations ago the greatness of america remains not only enlightened but in her ability to repair. Its time to repair our folks. Thank you very much, reverend anthony. Mr. Signs, good to have you with us. Thank you, senator and thank you, all of you for conducting this critically important hearing at this time. Maldef is promote all latinos living in the united states. From almost the very beginning of our organizations existence focusing on the vote and securing access to the Fair Election system have been top priorities. We joun our doll leagues in condemning the Election Integrity commission which was born out of donald trump mythology about illegal voting fraudulent voting in the 2016 election. That like many of these allegations focused on the Latino Community. Because of the actual and projected growth of the Latino Community, too often our community is the target of attempts to suppress votes either to restricting access to the ballot or registration or through a system that deprives the community of a meaningful vote. We join in condemning the commission and urge you to look at its funding and urge you lto look at its bias. In the past ive characterized this commission as an area 51 commission. Voter fraud is about as common as documented ufo sightings in this country. But today id like to focus on the Latino Communitys experience after Shelby County and in particular with the lack of preclearance coverage of the entire state of texas, the entire state of arizona, and por po portions of california. This did the work of maldef in palpable ways. Weve had to redouble or efforts to challenge election system and valid access that restrict the rights of latinos. In some cases we have had to leave the pursuit of litigation against texas voteser i. D. For example to our very capable colleagues, but our own lack of participation because we had to direct our efforts elsewhere has affected the overall goal of preserving Voting Rights. I will give you one example of what we have faced. The city of pasadena texas very shortly after the Shelby County decision was announced decided through its mayor to change its structure of government from a city council consisting of eight members elected from districts to a structure of six members elected from districts and two elected at large. It undertook that change pretty clearly to prevent the growing Latino Community which was on the cusp of the electing a majority of the district and Council Members from controlling the city council. We had to challenge that change successfully but only through a very expensive pretrial preparation. Experts and all the rest and a lengthy trial. In the end, the judge concluded that there was not only a deluded, unlawful effect on the latino vote, but that the change was intended to have that deluded effect on the Latino Community in pasadena, texas. It resulted in what we believe to be the first contested bail in order subjecting a jurisdiction to declaring in the future. My point is it took much work and cost to achieve that and for one small city in texas. Prior to Shelby County, maldef relied heavily on the effect of preclearance, not just in covered jurisdictions but uncovered jurisdictions as well which paid attention to what changes were blocked by the department of justice or the d. C. Federal court and paid attention to the changes that were required to the preclearance review before attempting to make similar changes in their own jurisdictions. We no longer have that deterrent effect. I want to identify one of the frequently uncited beneficiaries of the preclearance process and thats the taxpayers of the defendant
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