HM 1283 - Fundamental Right to Vote

• Urges Congress to propose a constitutional amendment establishing that every U.S. citizen of legal voting age has a fundamental right to vote in any public election in their jurisdiction.

• Cites Florida voter participation rates of 64% in 2012 and 42.2% in 2010, and notes Florida laws restricting voter registration drives, reducing early voting periods from 14 to 8 days, and requiring voter identification.

• Documents disparate voting impacts on minorities and youth: African-American early voters comprised more than 20% of all early votes despite representing 13.6% of registered voters; approximately 50% of Florida voters aged 18-24 participated in 2012.

• Highlights felony disfranchisement affecting more than 200,000 Florida voters, with Florida being one of only three states with permanent disfranchisement and home to the highest number of disfranchised voters nationally; more than one in five African-American adults are disfranchised.

• Notes the United States is one of only 11 democratic nations without an explicit constitutional right to vote, and that Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act was invalidated by Shelby County v. Holder in 2013.