Thank you all for being here. The director of all voting is local but collaborative of the process and Education Fund in conjunction with the Civil LibertiesUnion Foundation and the american constitution society, the Campaign Legal center and the committee for civil rights under law. Shes on Voter Protection efforts for two president ial campaigns and spent several years in federal Government Services at the department of justice and the Environmental Protection agency. Welcome. I know im not doing this in order. The national cochair of the commission for the voters justice and also the president and founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition and served as the head of the committee for civil rights under law in february of 89 until june of 2016. Renowned for her contributions on critical justice issues including passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1991, 20 of six reauthorization provisions of the Voting Rights act. Welcome. Denise lieberman the director of advancement power and democracy program. Ms. Lieberman works to identify and remove systemic failures of voting. A seasoned constitutional civil rights lawyer she works on the ground in misery in addition to advancing broad protection initiatives nationwide engaging in the political lobbying, legal advocacy, litigation and Community Building to advance Electoral Reform including spearheading a nationwide advocacy efforts to combat Voter Registration. Welcome. Serving as a chief executive officer for the league of women voters and the United States where she is leaving the organization to appear in the Rapid Transformation and growth focused on building power by engaging advocacy, legislation, litigation and organizing efforts centered around the issues of the voter rights and reform. Prior to joining the league in 2018 she served in an organization at the forefront of the immigrant Rights Movement representing nearly 100,000 members. As you announce you will see a system in front of you and when you begin to like to turn green. And you have one minute left, youll see the yellow light and whelight andwhen you see the re, please prepare to wrap up. You are recognized for five minutes. Thank you. Members of the subcommittee, i am the Campaign Director for all voting is local, but Collaborative Campaign of the leadership Education Fund. The fighwe fight to dominate 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. The system is broken in 2016 problems presented 1 million voters from casting a ballot. These problems disproportionately caused voters of color, young people, voting with disabilities. In the past two Decades Congress has recognized the need for strong federal protections for the right to vote in the helping america vote act in 2002 and three authorizing the Voting Rights act in 2006. Both passed with strong bipartisan support and a robust record. In 2013 the Supreme Court justices go to the criminal protections in the preclearance system. Since the shelby case states and localities across the country have arrested a barriers to voting without critical. Federal protection are as vital today as they have been for the past century. They were provided for record turnout of eligible americans voted at a rate of less than 50 and faced insurmountable obstacles. Officials sometimes simply for not voting in 2010 until 2018, the secretary of state now governor brian kent had more than 1. 4 million voters. Some states are still more committed to purchase and to ensure accurate maintenance process. In 2018, georgia is law into question the registration status of 50,000 voters for a minor inconsistency in the registration record. Just recently the ohio secretary of state admitted that the system had errors just shy of half a million votes. Many of them africanamerican and low income voter lowincomee purged this year under the system. In 2018 they faced largescale changes. The leadership Education Funds report found that in section five there were 1,173 fewer places in 2018 than in 2014. Despite last novembers record turnout. The county arizona they closed 171 polling locations. After 2012 the most of any county studied in the report. Widespread changes lea made to e over use of provisional ballots. The analysis of 717 under section five counties from the voters and the counties from the polling place closures are more likely to be asked to cast a provisional ballot. They contemplated that they would be used as a safe space but they are less likely than the regular ballots. They are in over use as the canary i in a coal miner the cof signaling the systemic problems that result in voters not knowing when or how to vote. Our campaign and analysis has found strong connections to race. In philadelphia 41 of africanamericans are five times as likely to get a provisional ballots than those in allegheny, 12. 7 or 4 black. In 2018, africanamerican students taste unique barriers to voting. At ohio, voters had a disproportionate number of ballots and were twice as likely to have their ballots rejected and those countywide. In florida in 2018 at the end of the university of the states and the only major public campus without the early both sides. Voters of color were more likely to have problems voting by mail in an analysis of the state of voters in mostly White Communities are less likely than those living in communities of color. In arizona just over 1 of native American Voters are on the states prevented early voting list compared to approximately 80 . In 2018 strict voter id laws targeted africanAmerican Voters with the most surgical precision as the Fourth Circuit in 2018 in the North Carolina law. The campaign had hundreds of wisconsin voters through the arduous process of complying with the states it. Its been found with more than 20 of africanamerican registered voters compared to just 8. 3 of those registering. The Administration Process can and should be used to expand access to the valid fo ballot fl eligible americans. Too often they become interior to voting disenfranchising millions of eligible americans particularly voters of color. Any is one too many. Congress must restore and expand safeguards for 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. Chairwoman highranking member davis and members of the subcommittee. My name is virginia and i served as the chief executive officer of the league of women voters and the United States. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on Voting Rights an issue of paramount importance. Of the league of women voters is nonpartisan with nearly 100 years ago in 1920 those that understood the importance of securing Voting Rights for women. Its acted in all 50 states as well as the district of columbia with 764 local affiliates in every Congressional District in the country. In 1965 to Voting Rights act outlawed Racial Discrimination voting and established to protect equal access to the right to vote for everyone. Despite th a history of support from the legislators of all Political Parties in 2013 the Supreme Court overturned the key provisions in the case of shelby county. Since the decision, across the country theyve passed unnecessarily restrictive legislation and adopted practices that discriminate against a disenfranchised voters of color and minorities whose first language is not english. Making it harder for them to register and much more difficult to vote. These restrictive legislative initiatives include an effort to implement thincluding efforts tn states like texas, wisconsin, missouri and pennsylvania. They pushed back against the efforts and we push back against efforts to roll back and eliminate the covert reform like preregistration and sameday registration in North Carolina. Essentially the decision weakens the Voting Rights act is a mechanism to fight discrimination by striking down important preclearance and oversight provisions. These suppressive walls have a major impact on our election. Successive long lines in urban areas, consolidation of the polling sites with little or no notice, reduction in the early voting hours and participation, massive voter purges, no effective notice that caused the barriers on election day, and inadequate number of machines in areas where early voting showed a clear voter participation. It is unlikely that this was incidental or unintentional. But instead expressly targeted the population of the new american majority. Including the minorities, youth and income sensitive individuals. In effect, they shut out millions and denied citizens the protection of the right to vote. If these barriers protested the 116th congress has been momentous opportunity to restore the Voting Rights in this country. The opportunity to strengthen the Voting Rights act by creating a new formula that would trigger the preclearance to certain changes to the voting law and the administrative practice is needed now more than ever and the creation of the notification process that lets all voters know when changes to the process may occur and ensures that they are informed prior to them showing up at the polls on election day. If Congress Fails to act immediately, this will be the first redistricting cycle to occur without a fully functioning Voting Rights act and allow the states to push through unjustifiable changes to their wall that would have a direct impact on voters for a decade. Without continued oversight in safeguards to protect from all backgrounds is much to organizations like the league of women voters and other nonprofit groups to implement protect those effect by these policies and practices, but that should not be the role of the league and our partners. It is the responsibility of the government to create and enforce laws that create barriers and the democracy our forefathers designed to foster an open, transparent government by the people, for the people. It is the duty of government to protect the rights of voters and encourage participation in the nonpolitical systems not create barriers that prevent participation. As we have for nearly 100 years before we look forward to working across the aisle to determine the point of consensus for any legislation considered before congress, and we look forward to working with elected leaders to protect and uphold their responsibilities and ensuring that they have the unobstructed ability to exercise the right to vote. Thank you again for the opportunity to testify on the importance of disturbing the Voting Rights act and i look forward to taking questions and continue to work if you all. Thank you very much. You are recognized for five minutes. Thank you, chairwoman. [inaudible] thank you for the opportunity to testify today on this topic. I want to dedicate my remarks to the memory of the congressman elijah cummings. Ive already been introduced and im here representing the commission for voter justice which hes represented here today by baltimore and i want to make sure that we get this into the record that this commission was formed in july of 2017 to respond to them. Of the Voter Suppression measures. Also many will recall President Donald Trump had a pervasive voter fraud and subsequent creation from the president ial Advisory Commission on election integrity. We felt that there was an urgent need to counteract this dangerous and erroneous negative but instead provides an account of the urgent need for the protection of our democracy from the insidious threat of the modern era of Voter Protection. I created the map of shame in april of 2011 which was the First National to expose and educate the American Public about the rise of the contemporary Voter Suppression measures. Theres been directed a substantial regiment of disenfranchising barriers and the ability to have the votes counted for the millions of eligible. In january, 2018, the commission upheld a series of hearings compiled over state reports looking at Voting Rights and have engaged in many Voter Education and other efforts. One thing that we heard in june of 2018 from donald jones at the university of miami was that the only real proper way to look at what we are in his understanding thais understandingthat when itg rights in america is [inaudible] that is how extreme this is. This reality against the rights of american citizens to exercise the right ttheir right to vote e their votes counted and supported by mounting evidence when we consider them. If the Voter Suppression law, the multitude of the Voting Rights cases filed at the federal courts, the numerous reports documenting actions by the states to ente impair the rs of the citizens to vote and have their vote counted and the continuing negative cases for the Supreme Court and the new insidious threat addressing the social media as documented by this select Commission Investigative report. We also have created a new tool and document that is called the 61 forms of Voter Suppression and let me be very clear that a year ago this was less than 30. The creativity, the insidiousness, the rapid expansion of the Voter Suppression measures is that extreme and growing. If i were to do this today i would probably add more. That shows how creative the states are being and how persistent they are being in pursuing this. Major findings of the hearings have been already expressed by some in the testimony, but i just want make clear there are two critical things that we need to appreciate today. One is when shelby v. Holder was decided. We are 18 months into that regimen of the moderate Voter Suppression. About the impact of the absence of a preclearance mechanism. In the second thing i want to make clear is that nothing in the world can substitute for preclearance. To prevent Racial Discrimination and that in this era of massive Voter Suppression, that this is the effective regimen that exists its not enough. We want to commend congress and commend you for this hearing and we have things we would like to move into the record. The testimony of reverend Chelsea Jackson in the 61 Voter Suppression and of course i would like to experiment remarks. Thank you so much. With no objection. Thank you very much. Ms. Miss lieberman. You know now recognized five minutes. Thank you. Thank you bowling is important meeting on voter rights. My name is denise lieberman, and the director and advancement object office. Advancement project is the Racial Justice organization that works into partnership with grassroots organizations that develop Community Based solutions that are inspired by the tactics that produce the earlier landmarks summarize victories. We are proud to stand behind our monday partners on the ground in those states and their fighting battles for Racial Justice and the right to vote. And the need is great. We are with the greatest help for the democracy hall. Since the post reconstruction era. I am particularly gratified chairwoman, that the subcommittee has chosen to have a peoples panel. Because our fight to protect the right to vote, and the need for congress to take definitive action, to secure the right to vote for all citizens, lies in the lived experiences of the people for whom protection is most need it and the people whose voices are most often silenced. Because at the end of the day right to vote, it is about selfdetermination and the right of people to make decisions about their own lives. In their own destinies and it is about dignity. If societies structural mechanism that says you cant. Literally. Thats when the right to vote is denied, or abridged, it says you dont count. And so this is the very personal matter. Is much is it is policy, it is legal and we need to understand all of the statistics. It is deeply rooted in the basic human dignity. Of