“There is a Voting Rights Crisis” - REP. MAXINE WATERS ON NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION DAY

Washington D.C. – Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-43), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, released the following statement on the fight to defend voting rights and National Voter Registration Day

“On this National Voter Registration Day, Democrats in the House of Representatives are renewing our commitment to safeguard the fundamental right of citizens to vote in this country. Today, we reintroduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. This monumental piece of legislation would modernize and restore key protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Ten years ago, in 2013, the Supreme Court in the disastrous Shelby County v. Holder Decision gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act which required states with a history of racial voter discrimination to preclear new voting laws with the Department of Justice or a federal court. With the 2013 Supreme Court decision, some states have been running counter-democracy discriminatory voting laws.

This year alone, state legislators have passed a near-record amount of new restrictive voting laws that make it more difficult for people to register to vote, stay on the rolls, or cast a ballot. They are limiting voting by mail, passing baseless photo ID requirements, and making it convenient to wrongfully purge voters.

Some states are also pushing election interference laws that could criminalize election-related activities, like Trump and his cronies tried to do to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the two election workers in Georgia who were put through hell for just doing their jobs.

These restrictions are being passed on the basis of a huge lie: the lie that the 2020 election was stolen, the same lie that the former President of the United States has been indicted on - twice.

The issue of voting is the issue of my dear friend, the legendary, the late John Lewis, who dedicated his life to championing the right of every individual to register and cast their vote. We are continuing that fight.

Last congress, under President Biden, the House passed the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, but Republicans in the Senate blocked it.

There is a voting rights crisis in this country. There has been for some time, but extreme MAGA Republicans are accelerating the crisis and we must fight back and expose their brazen hypocrisy. The way to win is to renew our understanding of the vote as our power and register to vote today, as we mark National Voter Registration Day.” 

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