; Whereas since the preclearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 have been vacated, among other effects, many States’ gerrymandered districts have gone unchallenged or have become less likely to be invalidated by the courts; Whereas these gerrymandered districts have been found to have a discriminatory impact on traditionally dis­en­fran­chised minorities through tactics that include cracking , diluting their voting power across many districts, and packing , concentrating minority voters’ power in one district to reduce their voting power in other districts; Whereas the courts have found the congressional and, in some cases, State legislative district maps in Texas, North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Wisconsin, and other States to be gerrymandered districts that were created to favor some groups over others; Whereas the Shelby County v. Holder Supreme Court decision calls on Congress to update the formula in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to better match current data; Whereas in at least 23 States, some form of restrictive voting law has been instituted since 2013; Whereas these restrictive voting laws encompass cutbacks in early voting, voter roll purges, placement of faulty equipment in minority communities, requirement of photo identification, and elimination of same-day registration; Whereas these policies could outright disenfranchise or make voting much more difficult for more than 80 million minority, elderly, poor, and disabled voters, among other groups; Whereas in 2016 alone, discriminatory laws in North Carolina, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Texas were ruled to violate voters’ rights and were overturned by the courts; Whereas the COVID–19 public health emergency has only exacerbated the state of elections and voters’ access to the ballot; Whereas the lack of fair and safe election policies threaten minority communities, which have been disproportionately impacted and disenfranchised due to the COVID–19 pandemic, and their access to the ballot