Today, the House of Representatives moved closer to ensuring that those living within the District have autonomy over the laws that govern them and full representation in the halls of Congress. We applaud Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton and the House Democrats who voted for this bill today, and the activists and organizers who made this historic vote possible.

Outdated, racist voter suppression laws that disenfranchise the formerly incarcerated have no place in New York. No one should be excluded from our democracy because of Jim Crow-relic voting laws or as a result of our deeply broken criminal justice system.

Every American—no matter our race or our zip code—should be able to exercise our constitutional right to vote. Yet for generations, policymakers have erected deliberate barriers to voting in a brazen attempt to keep tens of millions of eligible citizens—especially Black, Brown, and Indigenous Americans—from casting ballots.