U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is reintroducing legislation to create the the “first-ever affirmative Federal voting rights guarantee for all eligible citizens.”
Sen. Ossoff filed the Right to Vote Act to once again take federal action to “enshrine into law American citizens’ fundamental right to vote,” according to a press release. He first dropped the bill in 2021.
The Right to Vote Act, lawmakers say, would protect American citizens’ fundamental right to vote by establishing a first-ever statutory right to vote in Federal elections — protecting U.S. citizens from laws that make it harder to cast a ballot.
The bill would allow Americans to enforce that right by challenging in court any policy that unduly restricts ballot access. States attempting to restrict voting access would have to meet a high bar to justify any policy that makes it harder for U.S. citizens to participate in Federal elections.
Senators Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Angus King (I-ME), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Alex Padilla (D-CA) cosponsored the bill.
Representative Summer Lee (D-PA-12) is introducing the companion bill in the House.
“With voting rights under attack in Georgia and across the country, I am reintroducing my legislation to empower voters to challenge in court any action taken by a state or local government that makes it harder to vote, and force that state or that locality to demonstrate that the restrictions serve some governmental purpose and are the least restrictive means of doing so,” Ossoff said in a press release.
“Our vote is our voice, and this legislation is needed now more than ever as this administration has made clear that it will do everything in its power to limit access to the ballot box this fall,” said Senator Reverend Warnock. “I’m proud to join my brother Senator Ossoff in introducing the Right to Vote Act.”
Click here to read the Right to Vote Act.
This isn’t the only voting-oriented initiative by Ossoff either. In March 2024, Sen. Ossoff joined Senators Reverend Raphael Warnock, Dick Durbin, Leader Chuck Schumer, and colleagues in reintroducing the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, legislation that would update and restore critical safeguards of the original Voting Rights Act of 1965 that have been they say have been eroded in recent years by federal court rulings.
