The best to vote is the muse of our democracy — it defines us as Individuals and serves because the cornerstone of our liberty. With it, something is feasible in America; with out it, nothing is. It’s a legacy handed down by our biggest leaders — a legacy which gives every one in all us with a voice within the creation of a greater Nation. It’s the supply of our energy as residents, our mightiest device of social transformation, and the stabilizing custom that confers legitimacy to our system of Authorities. Every year on Nationwide Voter Registration Day, we reaffirm our conviction that democracy solely works when everybody can take part, and we encourage all eligible Individuals to register to vote.
Our Nation has not all the time lived as much as its promise of equal entry to the correct to vote, and so many Individuals have struggled, suffered, and died combating for a say within the future of our nation. From Seneca Falls, New York, to Selma, Alabama, to Washington, D.C. — and throughout America — strange individuals have organized to protest disenfranchisement and gained. The efforts of those brave ladies and men have led to the passage of landmark civil rights laws just like the Voting Rights Act, the Nationwide Voter Registration Act, and the Assist America Vote Act, which prolonged the blessings of democracy to tens of millions of residents. Currently, nevertheless, these protections have been weakened by choices of the Supreme Courtroom of the US. Now, State legislatures are passing new types of voting restrictions to restrict participation and select whose vote can depend in any respect. As the late Consultant John Lewis, an icon of the voting rights wrestle, would say, “democracy just isn’t a state; it’s an act.” Our Founding Fathers understood this, as did the suffragists on the Nationwide Girls’s Rights Conference of 1848, the opposite giants of the Civil Rights Motion, and at this time’s activists working for a freer, fairer, and extra accessible voting system. Simply as securing and defending voting rights was the take a look at of their occasions, it continues to be the problem of ours.
As President, I’ll do the whole lot in my energy to guard the correct to vote and be sure that each American has a free and honest alternative to train this basic liberty. This implies appointing extremely certified advocates to the Division of Justice and doubling the company’s voting rights enforcement workers to make sure the Division has the assets to struggle voter suppression within the courts. It additionally means issuing an Govt Order to determine a whole-of-government effort to advertise entry to voter registration and election data, particularly in a few of our most underserved communities. I have directed my Administration to take historic motion to assist faculty college students and veterans register successfully. I proceed to name on the Congress to cross the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Development Act. These legal guidelines would deal with election subversion, take away darkish cash from politics, finish partisan gerrymandering, and repair the gaping holes in voter entry left by the Supreme Courtroom of the US. They might additionally enable the Justice Division to halt discriminatory legal guidelines earlier than they go into impact.
In celebration of Nationwide Voter Registration Day, allow us to honor the heroes who fought to safe voting rights and increase them. I name on all eligible Individuals to make sure that their registration is updated and to encourage their household, neighbors, and mates to do the identical. Allow us to all stay engaged with the continued wrestle to construct an America the place each vote issues and the place each citizen has the power and the correct to take part freely within the democratic course of. We can not quit now. The way forward for our Nation depends upon it. To be taught extra about the best way to register or verify your voter registration data, you may go to vote.gov.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the US of America, by advantage of the authority vested in me by the Structure and the legal guidelines of the US, do hereby proclaim September 20, 2022, as Nationwide Voter Registration Day. I name on all eligible Individuals to look at today by making certain that they’re precisely registered and by committing to solid a poll in upcoming elections.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I’ve hereunto set my hand this nineteenth day of September, within the 12 months of our Lord two thousand twenty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the 2 hundred and forty-seventh.
JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.
