OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Defending Voting Rights

Floor Speech

Date: March 7, 2023
Location: Washington, DC

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Mrs. SYKES. Mr. Speaker, let me first start by acknowledging my colleagues from the great States of Illinois and Florida for organizing this Special Order hour to discuss protecting the Voting Rights Act.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to emphasize the most sacred right we have as Americans, a cornerstone of our democracy, the freedom to vote.

Mr. Speaker, you may know that on January 6, 2023, exactly 2 years after the antidemocratic insurrection on this Nation's Capitol, my home State, the State of Ohio, enacted one of the strictest, most restrictive antivoter laws in the entire country. This law works to silence the voice of Ohioans, including my constituents in Ohio's 13th Congressional District, by creating deliberate barriers to voting, including reducing the number of early voting hours and enacting unnecessarily strict photo ID requirements, one of the most stringent in the country.

Just a few weeks ago, the largest county in Ohio's 13th Congressional District had the fourth highest amount of names purged from the voter rolls, over 5,000 of the 125,000 statewide.

But this blatant attack on freedom to vote is not just a phenomenon in my home State of Ohio. No, Mr. Speaker, since the 2022 election, 19 states have enacted laws that make it harder for Americans to cast their ballot.

Mr. Speaker, remember it was the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a bipartisan piece of legislation, that ensured that States who are plenty happy to disenfranchise Black and Brown voters had to take additional steps to ensure and allow people to vote.

It is our duty as Representatives elected by the people of these United States to put people over politics and do everything within our power to strengthen our democracy and protect the sacred right to vote in free, fair, and secure elections.

We must restore the protections of the Voting Rights Act and take the necessary steps to ensure access to the ballot box by passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to rise to the urgency of this moment by using every tool at our disposal to protect the right to vote. Our democracy simply cannot wait. Equal access to the ballot for every American must be our focus.

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