Ranking Member Scanlon Convenes Spotlight Hearing with National Experts on Defending the Right to Vote

Washington, D.C. — Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, this week convened a shadow hearing to reinforce for the American people the importance and resiliency of our elections and the safeguards in place to protect the right to vote ahead of November’s midterm elections. The shadow hearing, titled “ Protecting Democracy: Defending the Right to Vote ,” convened as the Trump administration continues to undermine voting rights by pushing election integrity misinformation and voter suppression laws to disenfranchise voters. Over the past year and a half, Americans have overwhelmingly rejected the Trump administration’s policies through public opinion polls and special elections, yet the administration continues to sow division and stoke fear and confusion to prevent the American people from casting ballots that reject its policies of chaos, corruption, and division. To provide transparency ahead of the November midterms, a panel of expert witnesses shared critical information about the origins of the right to vote, voter education, and election security to reassure Members in attendance, and the American people, that their votes in November’s midterm election are safe and secure. Members of Congress joining the hearing included Rep. Jamie Raskin (MD-08), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Joe Morelle (NY-25), Ranking Member of the Committee on House Administration, Rep. Don Beyer (VA-08), Rep. Glenn Ivey (MD-04), and Rep. Jasmine Crockett (TX-30). The members heard testimony from Michael Waldman, President and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice, Jessica Jones Capparell, Director of Government Affairs at the League of Women Voters of the United States, and Alysoun McLaughlin, former Deputy Elections Director for Montgomery County, Maryland, and Director of the Election Resilience Lab at the University of Maryland’s Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement. The hearing builds on a shadow hearing Ranking Member Scanlon led last week at Widener University in Chester, PA alongside Ranking Member Morelle. That hearing focused upon the Supreme Court’s ruling rejecting the President’s attempt to interfere with vote-by-mail as unlawful, and election security in the Keystone State. Experts at both hearings expressed confidence that American elections are secure and accurate, and urged voters to exercise their right and responsibility to participate in America’s democratic elections in order to express their views. Below are Ranking Member Scanlon’s remarks at this week’s hearing. WATCH Ranking Member Scanlon’s full opening statement. WATCH a recorded livestream of the event here. I would like to start by thanking my colleagues and our expert witnesses for joining us here today. I’m eager to hear from our experts about the security and resilience of our election systems and how we can best protect the right to vote. This topic is timely as rich and powerful forces, including many in the Trump administration, actively seek to undermine voters’ voices with untruths and unconstitutional attacks that could disenfranchise significant numbers of our fellow citizens. As our country has sought to bend the arc of the moral universe towards justice, a constant part of that effort has been expanding access to the ballot. We’ve seen that from the very birth of our nation as our founders rejected the monarchy and claimed the right to determine their own destiny in a democratic republic. That effort continued as the right to vote expanded to those who are not property owners, those who were formerly enslaved or subjugated, to women, to those denied access to the ballot by Jim Crow laws, and to citizens under the age of 21. At each step of the way, we’ve seen opposition by those in power—those who consider themselves elite—and who would lose power if they allowed others to participate in our government. That includes the king and nobility in 1776, slaveholders during the Civil War, men when women were granted suffrage, white plantation and business owners in the South, and politicians who sent young men to war in Vietnam. Those who stand to lose power have always tried to keep it in their grip. The situation now is the same. The rich and powerful who have had a death grip on our government through lax campaign finance laws and the Supreme Court’s curtailment of rights are desperate to cling to power. This is not the way of leaders. Throughout our history, U.S. presidents have been at the forefront of expanding and ensuring access to the ballot, whether it was George Washington leading the fight to establish a democracy, Abraham Lincoln fighting to free those enslaved, John F. Kennedy and LBJ joining forces with civil rights leaders, or each time the Voting Rights Act was extended with bipartisan support. Up until now, it has always been assumed that a president would support the Department of Justice’s enforcement of civil rights laws, and reinforce, rather than attack, Americans’ faith in our democratic system. As Ronald Reagan unequivocally declared when he signed into law the 1982 amendments to the Voting Rights Act: “[T]he right to vote is the crown jewel of American liberties, and we will not see its luster diminished.” But at this moment, we see a president trying to undermine voters’ faith in our elections with phony claims about election integrity, by defunding the watchdogs and systems that protect our elections, and by trying to restrict access to the ballot with 21st-century voter suppression laws like the SAVE Act. It has become clear that this administration seeks to undermine our elections for the reasons that those in power have always tried to do so—because it can’t stand that Americans wish to chart a more equitable and just course for our future and our children’s future. Everywhere you look, the policies are only growing more undemocratic. The administration is clamoring for voter suppression laws; usurping the powers of Congress to make laws, direct spending, and declare war; using the government and our criminal justice system to attack the president's enemies; and suppressing dissent and criticism by banning the press, television programming, and even comedians. It is not hard to see why this administration would want to restrict access to the ballot, as Americans are roundly rejecting these policies of chaos, corruption, and cruelty unleashed by this administration. Everything from public opinion polls to special elections in the last year and a half, to the millions of Americans who have taken to the streets to express their dissent, points to Americans seeking a course correction in the midterm elections. Your votes are the tool created by the framers of our Constitution for Americans to demand a course correction. Your vote is always the antidote to those who fail to act in our common interest or abuse the power that “We the People” have given to them with our elections. And that is why we are holding this hearing today, to look at that history and examine: why our votes are so important - one could even call it a superpower; how we guard that precious voice for every American; and why it is so important that every eligible American be able to cast their ballot—and use their superpower to do so. The rights etched into history by the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were part of a “promissory note” to every American, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The United States has defaulted on its promise many times over two and a half centuries. It failed initially to deliver on that promise to people of color, to women, to Indigenous tribes, to the impoverished. And yet, the American people never stopped striving to deliver. Our history shows that, when asked who shall participate, the public ultimately declared that the vote should belong to every citizen. Not only that, but the American people have fought for this principle time and time again. No matter what this president hopes to do or wants us to think, the American people remain steadfast in their devotion to the crown jewel of their citizenship and of this democracy - their right to vote. On this, my Democratic colleagues and I could not agree more with President Reagan —the right to vote shall never see its luster diminished. Expanding the right to vote is a proud American tradition. Unfortunately, the actions of the Trump administration and the Supreme Court’s recent decisions carving up the VRA are indications that reactionary forces are once again on the rise. But just as previous campaigns by the corrupt and powerful have failed to undermine Americans’ resolve to expand the franchise and exercise the vote, this latest attempt will fail as well. And our democratic experiment, which was forged in the summer heat of a Philadelphia assembly hall in 1776, will thrive. Every American should be able to exercise our precious right to vote, and deserves to know that our ballot is secure. We urge you to Vote, and honor that sacred right. This November, and for every election that follows, the American people will make our voices known, and we will continue preserving our Constitution—a republic dedicated to the will of “We the People” and based upon the sanctity of our votes. I look forward to our witnesses’ testimony and thank them again for being here with us today. ###