Congressman Serrano is a strong supporter of efforts to ensure that all Americans have the right to vote and the security to know that their vote has been correctly counted. He believes that states should have the freedom to choose the voting system they feel most comfortable with, but also the responsibility to ensure that all voters have the ability to vote and to have their vote correctly counted. He also thinks that under the Constitution, the federal government has a duty to protect those groups- like African-Americans and Latinos- who have been historically discriminated against in the voting process.

As Chair of the Financial Services Appropriations Subcommittee, Congressman Serrano has helped work towards those goals. The subcommittee has jurisdiction and funding responsibility over the Election Assistance Commission as well as the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). In fiscal year 2008, he provided $115 million in further HAVA funding to help states ensure that their elections in November will be fair, secure, and accurate. He has also worked to ensure that the Election Assistance Commission is an open, transparent, and non-partisan organization that all states can rely on as a clearinghouse for information on election administration.

Congressman Serrano has also helped New York on its path to new, accurate, and secure voting machines. In 2007, he helped New York save $49 million in federal funding that is being used to purchase new accessible machines for voters with disabilities. These machines are expected to be in place in time for the November 2008 general election. In addition, he helped Puerto Rico start to attain its fair share of HAVA funding by removing a restriction that greatly limited Puerto Rico’s ability to receive federal funding to update their voting systems.

In 2006, Serrano cosponsored the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act- which ensures that racial and language minorities are not discriminated against in the election process. This law, in place since 1965, has greatly increased the number of African-Americans and Latinos serving in Congress, and has prevented discrimination both in the polling place and in redistricting efforts. In 2007, Congressman Serrano was an original cosponsor of the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act, which criminalizes knowing efforts to provide false information to voters with the intent of preventing them from exercising their right to vote.