Voter Suppression Is Back, 55 Years After the Voting Rights Act
Today we celebrate the 55th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, the civil rights law that John Lewis was willing to die for as he marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. In signing the Act in 1965, President Lyndon Johnson pledged: We will not delay, or we will not hesitate, or we will not turn aside until Americans of every race and color and origin in this country have the same right as all others to share in the process of democracy. For a nation mourning our fiercest champion of this seminal legislation, we should use this anniversary to double down on fulfilling its promise of participatory democracy.
Current challenges to voting are as daunting as they come. We are in the middle of a global pandemic that is forcing votersin the most consequential election in modern historyto choose between their lives and their vote. While voting by mail provides a safe, alternative method, the Trump administration is mounting a partisan attack on the postal service to undermine its efficacy. Exacerbating the health crisis is rampant voter suppression by states and localities that limits access to the ballot and jeopardizes chances that the ballots cast will be counted. Trumps judicial appointments are ensuring that voter suppression is upheld by the courts.
To begin, we must preserve Lewis legacythe Voting Rights Act. Seven years ago, the Supreme Courts decision in Shelby County v. Holder put a dagger in the heart of the Voting Rights Act, as Lewis said at the time. The rulingwhich eliminated preclearance of voting changes in jurisdictions with a history of discriminationwas devastating to voters who enjoyed its protection for decades and to Lewis personally. He had shepherded reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act through overwhelming support by Congress in 2006. When its constitutionality was challenged, Lewis filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court and attended oral arguments. After the Courts ruling, he immediately went to work on restoring the Voting Rights Act. The first bill was introduced in January 2014, and it was finally passed by the House of Representatives on December 6, 2019.
Renamed after Lewis, this voting rights bill has sat at the desk of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for 240 days. The obstruction is unforgivable, especially now. The same Republican senators who paid tribute to Lewis after his passing now even refuse to move his signature legislation. There is every reason to act. Chief Justice John Roberts infamously noted in his Shelby County opinion that [o]ur country has changed. But the floodgates of voter suppression that opened immediately after the Courts rulingimposing strict voter ID requirements, ending early voting, closing polling places, purging voters, and redrawing election districtsprovide overwhelming evidence of modern-day voting discrimination to support restoring the Voting Rights Act to full strength.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/voter-suppression-is-back-55-years-after-the-voting-rights-act/ar-BB17E2l6?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=DELLDHP