New bill would help Americans citizens sue to enforce their voting rights
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, co-sponsored legislation to create the first-ever affirmative federal voting rights guarantee for all eligible citizens.
First introduced in 2021, the Right to Vote Act 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.
On Monday, Sen. Cantwell delivered a speech on the Senate floor calling out the Trump Administration’s war on mail-in voting as the latest frontier in a long history of voter disenfranchisement in the United States.
“Voting in America is your right. Americans have been beaten, they’ve been bloodied, and they’ve given their lives to secure that right. Disenfranchisement today is more bureaucratic, and it’s more technical, but the results for ordinary citizens is the same: Their voices are shut out of a democracy,” Sen. Cantwell said. “I ask my colleagues to stand up for their constituents — because if we don’t stop this administration’s war on voting rights, I guarantee you, millions of Americans will be disenfranchised.”
Video of her speech this week is HERE; a transcript is HERE.
Sen. Cantwell joined Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), 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), and Alex Padilla (D-CA) in cosponsoring the bill.
Representative Summer Lee (D-PA-12) is introducing the companion bill in the House.
Sen. Cantwell has been a stalwart defender against overreach of the Trump administration into our elections:
- On June 24, she denounced President Trump’s announcement that he would not sign the 21st Century Road to Housing Act – an overwhelmingly popular, bipartisan bill that passed both the House and Senate earlier in the week and would have increased housing supply and brought down housing costs – until Congress passes the SAVE America Act. That legislation, which Trump has repeatedly demanded, would eliminate vote-by-mail and impose onerous new restrictions on voting and registering to vote. It would disenfranchise millions of Americans in the name of a voter fraud “crisis” that, even by the standards of the right-wing Heritage Foundation, straightforwardly does not exist.
- On June 23, she joined the entire Democratic Caucus in sending a letter to the United States Postal Service (USPS) demanding the USPS abandon attempts to restrict voting by mail called for by President Trump in an illegal and unconstitutional March 31 executive order attacking mail and absentee ballots.
- On June 17, she joined several of her Senate Democratic colleagues for a spotlight forum highlighting President Donald Trump’s illegal overreach into our free and fair elections.
- On June 8, she joined 23 of her Senate colleagues in demanding answers over the Trump Administration’s decision to remove the most recent version of the Federal Prosecution of Election Offenses manual from the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) website without explanation.
- On April 29, she was tapped by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to join a task force of senators defending our elections from interference.
- On April 23, she joined colleagues in introducing the Absentee and Mail Voter Protection Act to protect the right to vote by mail and block President Trump’s illegal and unconstitutional March 31 executive order attacking mail and absentee ballots.
- On April 22, she sent a letter to the USPS warning the agency against complying with the executive order, which would undermine mail-in voting.
- On April 1, after the executive order on mail-in voting was announced, she issued a statement in opposition.
- On March 18, she convened a group of current and former elected officials and representatives of nonpartisan voter advocacy groups for a virtual press conference on defending voter access. Video of that entire virtual press conference is HERE; video of Sen. Cantwell’s statement is HERE; and a transcript of Sen. Cantwell’s statement is HERE.
- On March 15, she issued a snapshot report showing that the SAVE America Act – the voter suppression bill President Trump has continued to demand Congress pass – would cost Washington state taxpayers more than $35 million this year alone.
- On Feb. 24, Sen. Cantwell invited Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs as her guest to President Trump’s State of the Union address to draw attention to the issue.
- On Feb. 20, she convened local leaders in Seattle for a press conference urging Washingtonians to fight back against these proposed new burdens to voting.
- On Feb. 19, she gathered in Vancouver with the Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey and local chapter heads of the League of Women Voters and the NAACP for a press conference on how this bill would disenfranchise voters.
- Also on Feb. 19, she released a snapshot report showing who in Washington would face undue hurdles to voting if the SAVE America Act were signed into law. The report shows that certain populations – including people who live in rural areas, women who changed their name after marriage, and people who recently moved – would face additional, cumbersome burdens to prove their citizenship.
- On Feb. 5, she appeared on MSNOW’s Morning Joe to push back against the Trump administration’s heightened efforts to interfere in state-run elections and collect private data on American voters. Video of Sen. Cantwell’s appearance is HERE; a transcript is HERE.
- On Jan. 29, Sen. Cantwell joined Senate colleagues in a letter to then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, pushing DOJ to stop its unlawful pressure campaign to coerce dozens of states into providing the Trump Administration their voter rolls, which include voters’ personally identifiable information. DOJ has sued 24 states – including Washington state – and the District of Columbia demanding the personal information of their voters.
- On Jan. 15, she joined Senate colleagues in a letter to USPS Postmaster General David Steiner raising concerns with recent developments affecting postmark practices. Right before the holiday season, USPS changed its postmark practices, which could have significant impacts on voters nationwide and in Washington state – including rural voters, military and overseas voters, and many others who rely on rely on the mail to safely and securely cast their ballot.
- On Jan. 9, she joined 13 Senate colleagues in filing an amicus brief before the Supreme Court in Watson v. Republican National Committee, a significant case pending before the Court that affects voting by mail. The case, brought by the Republican National Committee, threatens the election administration practices of states like Washington that permit the counting of mail ballots that are postmarked by Election Day to be counted when they are received within a certain number of days after Election Day. The Court heard oral arguments in the case in March and a ruling is pending, with a decision expected soon before the Court concludes its current term.