Durbin Delivers Opening Statement During Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Protecting Voting Rights

Hearing

“Last week, we commemorated the 59th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama. On that infamous day in 1965, 600 Americans, led by a young John Lewis and Reverend Hosea Williams, were met by police wielding billy clubs, bullwhips, and tear gas as they marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to protest the disenfranchisement of Black Americans. Just months later, Congress finally passed legislation to protect every American’s right to vote. The Voting Rights Act, or VRA, passed with 77 votes in the Senate, an overwhelming bipartisan majority. When the VRA was last reauthorized in 2006, not one Senator, Democratic or Republican, voted against the bill.

Next year will mark 60 years since Bloody Sunday and passage of the Voting Rights Act. But thanks to a series of misguided Supreme Court decisions, there has been a significant deterioration of the fundamental right to vote.”

“Many Americans fear that this attack on voting rights is part of a coordinated assault on our fundamental rights and institutions, as government officials, including the former President of the United States, try to overturn an election and sow doubt about its integrity. We can restore confidence in our democracy by ensuring that every eligible American can vote without fear of disenfranchisement. Congress can do just that by passing the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore the VRA.”

“Some have suggested we don’t need this law, pointing to record-breaking voter turnout in the 2020 election. But take a close look. If you do, you’ll see that the racial turnout gap is growing, fueled by these voter suppression efforts. In 2012, the year before

Just eight years later, after the end of preclearance, the turnout gap had returned, as Black voter turnout has fallen dramatically compared to White voters in these states.”

Since the Shelby County decision, states have passed 94 restrictive voting laws—including discriminatory laws that the Department of Justice had previously rejected under preclearance review. This includes laws that limit the use of mail ballot drop boxes, impose strict ID requirements, cut hours for early voting, and purge voters from registration rolls based on inaccurate databases.”

Voters in 27 states will face new restrictions on their right to vote in the presidential election. And without the full force of the VRA, their rights are at risk during one of the most critical elections of our lifetimes. We must pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to protect what he called, ‘the most powerful nonviolent tool or instrument we have in a democratic society.’”

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