Bill Text: IL HJR0076 | 2015-2016 | 99th General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Supports amending the United States Constitution to explicitly guarantee an individual's right to vote.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2015-05-30 - Resolution Adopted [HJR0076 Detail]
Download: Illinois-2015-HJR0076-Introduced.html
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1 | HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION
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2 | WHEREAS, In a democracy, the right to vote is a moral | ||||||
3 | imperative, the most fundamental legal right and is protective | ||||||
4 | of all other rights; and
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5 | WHEREAS, When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1965 | ||||||
6 | Voting Rights Act he said, "The right to vote is the basic | ||||||
7 | right, without which all others are meaningless"; and
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8 | WHEREAS, Each state, except for the State of Arizona, has | ||||||
9 | explicitly enshrined the right to vote with at least some level | ||||||
10 | of protection in its state constitution; and
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11 | WHEREAS, Nowhere in the United States Constitution is there | ||||||
12 | an explicit declaration of the right to vote, which weakens | ||||||
13 | protection in federal courts and undercuts state voting rights | ||||||
14 | protections due to state courts often "lock stepping" rights to | ||||||
15 | the level of support provided federally; and
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16 | WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court has called the | ||||||
17 | right to vote a fundamental right, this fundamental right | ||||||
18 | should be explicitly guaranteed to all Americans in the U.S. | ||||||
19 | Constitution; and
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20 | WHEREAS, As President Barack Obama, as a professor of |
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1 | constitutional law at the University of Chicago, began each of | ||||||
2 | his constitutional law classes sharing with his students the | ||||||
3 | surprising fact that an explicit "federal individual right to | ||||||
4 | vote" is not in the U.S. Constitution; and
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5 | WHEREAS, The only reference to an individual right to vote | ||||||
6 | in the original U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights is the | ||||||
7 | requirement that any citizen qualified to vote for a member of | ||||||
8 | a state's most "numerous house of the state legislature" is | ||||||
9 | eligible to vote for Members of the House of Representatives; | ||||||
10 | and
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11 | WHEREAS, The Constitution has been amended 17 times since | ||||||
12 | the passage of the Bill of Rights and 7 of those amendments | ||||||
13 | pertain to voting - 14th, 15th, 17th, 19th, 23rd, 24th and 26th - | ||||||
14 | but none of them add the explicit, fundamental, affirmative, | ||||||
15 | individual, citizenship, or federal right to vote to the | ||||||
16 | Constitution; and
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17 | WHEREAS, Three amendments outlaw discrimination in voting, | ||||||
18 | whether on the basis of race (15th) with the 1965 Voting Rights | ||||||
19 | Act serving as the implementing legislation for this amendment | ||||||
20 | 95 years later, sex (19th), or age (26th); and
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21 | WHEREAS, A constitutional right to vote would fulfill the | ||||||
22 | promise of the 15th, 19th and 26th Amendments; and
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1 | WHEREAS, Of the 119 nations that elect their public | ||||||
2 | officials using some form of democratic elections, 108 have the | ||||||
3 | right to vote in their constitution, but the United States is | ||||||
4 | one of the democratic 11 nations - including Australia, the | ||||||
5 | Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, India, Indonesia, | ||||||
6 | Nauru, Samoa, and the United Kingdom - that does not explicitly | ||||||
7 | contain a citizen's right to vote in its constitution; and
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8 | WHEREAS, With the exception of certain federal laws such as | ||||||
9 | the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, the Help America | ||||||
10 | Vote Act of 2002, and the Military and Overseas Voter | ||||||
11 | Empowerment Act of 2009, the U.S. has virtually no national | ||||||
12 | uniform standards for voting systems controlled by the states; | ||||||
13 | and
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14 | WHEREAS, Since voting is a state right with virtually no | ||||||
15 | national uniform standards, we have multiple and varied | ||||||
16 | election systems in the 50 states (plus the District of | ||||||
17 | Columbia), 3,143 counties (or county equivalents), and about | ||||||
18 | 13,000 local voting jurisdictions that administer about | ||||||
19 | 186,000 precincts, all organized and controlled and managed by | ||||||
20 | local election officials with 86% of Section 5 of the Voting | ||||||
21 | Rights Act Preclearance objections involving local, not | ||||||
22 | national or state, voting issues; and
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1 | WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court has unfortunately | ||||||
2 | undermined the right to vote in recent years, notably in its | ||||||
3 | 2013 decision of Shelby County v. Holder which made the | ||||||
4 | preclearance requirement ineffective and, as Freedom Rider, | ||||||
5 | Selma marcher, and US Congressman, John Lewis, so aptly stated, | ||||||
6 | "struck a dagger in the heart of the Voting Rights Act"; and
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7 | WHEREAS, Since 2014 at least 83 restrictive voting rights | ||||||
8 | bills were introduced in 29 states, and the Brennan Center for | ||||||
9 | Justice reports that 21 states have enacted restrictive voting | ||||||
10 | laws since 2011, including North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and | ||||||
11 | Wisconsin, and that in Texas alone this will affect more than | ||||||
12 | 600,000 adult-age citizens who do not have state-issued photo | ||||||
13 | identification; and
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14 | WHEREAS, Voter turnout in November 2014 represented a | ||||||
15 | smaller percentage of eligible voters than in a congressional | ||||||
16 | election since 1942, voter turnout in many primary elections in | ||||||
17 | 2014 was at an all-time low in more than half of states holding | ||||||
18 | primaries, and voter turnout in some major cities is now in | ||||||
19 | single digits; and
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20 | WHEREAS, A "right to vote" constitutional amendment | ||||||
21 | applies to and should be supported by all Americans because it | ||||||
22 | is (a) nonpartisan - not Democratic, Republican, or | ||||||
23 | independent; (b) non-ideological - not liberal or |
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1 | conservative; (c) non-programmatic - it does not require you to | ||||||
2 | support or oppose any particular legislative program; and (d) | ||||||
3 | non-special interest - its application is not limited to | ||||||
4 | minorities, women, labor, business, seniors, lesbians and | ||||||
5 | gays, or any other special interest groups; therefore, be it
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6 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | ||||||
7 | NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE | ||||||
8 | SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that we support amending the United | ||||||
9 | States Constitution to explicitly guarantee an individual's | ||||||
10 | right to vote; and be it further
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11 | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | ||||||
12 | delivered the members of the Illinois congressional | ||||||
13 | delegation.
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