WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Marcia Fudge does not mince words after spending the last ten months investigating voting rights in America.
- Rep. Fudge chaired subcommittee investigating voting rights
- Committee held hearings in eight states and Washington, D.C.
- Fudge says voter suppression is strong and spreading
“What we found is that people cannot believe that in 2019, we are still fighting for the right to vote as citizens of this great nation,” she said.
The Cleveland-area Democrat, who represents Ohio’s 11th Congressional District, said voter suppression is strong and spreading throughout the country.
In late 2018, as part of a deal to avoid a race for Speaker of the House, then-Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi named Fudge as chair of a Subcommittee on Elections, which Democrats decided to bring back after House Republicans eliminated it in 2013.
Throughout the first ten months of 2019, Fudge led the committee in holding field hearings in eight states and Washington, D.C. In total, more than 60 witnesses testified and provided over 3,000 pages of evidence about the state of voting rights across America.
On November 13, the subcommittee released a 144-page report of its findings and sent it to the House Judiciary Committee.
“So basically what we’re doing is giving them the data so that they can come up with a formula that will satisfy the court,” Fudge said in an interview with Spectrum News. "And it would then become a part of the Voting Rights Act.”
She meant the Supreme Court, which ruled in the 2013 case Shelby v. Holder that a section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act was outdated.
The ruling released nine states — Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia — and some counties in other states (California, Florida, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, and South Dakota) from being required to have changes to their voting rules be OK’d by the federal government.
The Supreme Court said in its ruling that Congress could come up with a new version of the rule, but six years have passed and Congress hasn’t.
Fudge is hoping her subcommittee’s report will get the ball rolling.
“I think that the Supreme Court made a huge mistake by saying ‘you go find some more data for me,’ because now it’s going to be broader and bigger than it ever was because it is happening all over the country now, not just in the South,” Fudge said.
At a hearing in her hometown of Cleveland earlier this year, Fudge criticized Ohio’s recent history of removing more than two million people from registration rolls since 2011, because they didn’t vote in the last six years and didn’t respond to a notice saying they were at risk of being purged.
“The right to vote is sacred, yet over the last decade or more, Ohio has transformed from a state that expanded access to the ballot to one that is drastically constricting voters’ access,” Fudge said during the hearing, which was attended by fellow Ohio Reps. Marcy Kaptur (D-09), Dave Joyce (R-14) and Anthony Gonzalez (R-16).
And at a hearing on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota, Fudge said a specific moment of testimony stood out to her. It was about the challenges new voter ID requirements place on Native Americans who are facing record-high unemployment rates.
“Understand that the fee of $15 is not exorbitantly high, but $15 is milk and bread for a week for a poor family,” said Alysia LaCounte of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.
As she fought back tears, LaCounte continued: “And as many of the Congressional delegation may be aware that we are not a wealthy Tribe, we have scrapped and scrimped and survived these past 200 years.”
Fudge said throughout the field hearings, she heard testimony about people feeling afraid to vote at police stations, feeling intimidated by security at polling places, and standing in line for hours or having to travel for hours just to cast a ballot.
In her interview with Spectrum, Fudge said she was encouraged that lawmakers from both parties joined her at the hearings, but her frustration was clear when she said this in a recent hearing held on Capitol Hill.
“I bet you any other democracy in this world doesn’t do what we do,” Fudge said.
Several days after that hearing, Spectrum Washington reporter Taylor Popielarz asked Fudge what she meant.
“Democracies want to involve all of the people who are eligible,” Fudge said. “We’re trying to make people less eligible by taking away their right to vote. No other democracy in this world wants to stop people from voting but us. None. And I challenge them to name one.”
Fudge said she does not know how quickly the House Judiciary Committee will act on her subcommittee’s report, which you can read here:
Where the field hearings were held:
1) Brownsville, Texas on February 4
2) Atlanta, Georgia on February 19
3) Fort Yates, North Dakota on April 16
4) Weldon, North Carolina on April 18
5) Cleveland, Ohio on April 25
6) Fort Lauderdale, Florida on May 6
7) Birmingham, Alabama on May 13
8) Phoenix, Arizona on October 1
9) Washington, D.C. on October 17