Let Our People Vote

June 24, 2015 JanF Featured Posts, News and Opinion 8

Today, Democrats in Congress will introduce the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015, a bill intended to repair the damage done to the Voting Rights Act by the Shelby County v Holder Supreme Court ruling two years ago.

The bill will face an uphill battle because one of our major national parties (sadly, the one in a majority right now) is bent on shrinking the franchise in order to continue to hang onto power. But it is important to present the Good Government alternative to their obstructionism:

The Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015 would compel states with a well-documented history of recent voting discrimination to clear future voting changes with the federal government, require federal approval for voter ID laws, and outlaw new efforts to suppress the growing minority vote.

The legislation will be formally introduced tomorrow by Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and leaders of the Black Caucus, Hispanic Caucus, and Asian Pacific American Caucus in the House. Civil-rights icon Representative John Lewis will be a co-sponsor. The bill is much stronger than the Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2014 (VRAA), Congress’s initial response to the Supreme Court’s decision, which garnered bipartisan support in the House but was not embraced by the congressional Republican leadership, which declined to schedule a hearing, let alone a vote, on the bill.[…]

The 2016 election will be the first in 50 years where voters will not have the full protections of the VRA, which adds urgency to the congressional effort.

The 2016 election can be summed up pretty succinctly as the “Use It Or Lose It” election as Democrats, including our likely nominee Hillary Clinton, have lined up on the side of expanding voting rights … and Republicans have made it clear that they have no interest in fixing any of the problems with our current system (the bill has no Republican sponsors).

The Nation reports:

The Voting Rights Advancement Act restores Section 5 of the VRA by requiring states with 15 voting violations over the past 25 years, or 10 violations if one was statewide, to submit future election changes for federal approval. This new formula would initially cover 13 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. (The VRAA of 2014 covered only Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.) Coverage would last for a 10-year period.

In addition, the Voting Rights Advancement Act would require federal approval for specific election changes that often target minority voters today, on a nationwide basis, particularly in places that are racially, ethnically, or linguistically diverse.

MSNBC reports that the bill will include:

– An updated coverage formula for the VRA, with the result that the nation’s three largest states—California, Texas and New York—as well as North Carolina and Alabama, would need federal approval, known as pre-clearance, to make changes to their election rules. If the bill were passed this year, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Virginia also would be covered. Under last year’s legislation, known as the Voting Rights Amendment Act, only four states—Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama—would immediately have been covered.
– A requirement that all 50 states get federal approval for any new barrier to voting or voter registration—as well as for other changes that often hurt minorities, like changing the number or location of polling places, or moving from a district-based to an at-large system for apportioning seats. In an effort to win Republican support, the 2014 bill gave special treatment to voter ID laws by not counting them among the violations that could cause an area to be put under the pre-clearance system.
– A requirement that jurisdictions publicly post any changes to voting rules within 180 days of an election, designed to help stop last-minute changes that fly under the radar.

Hillary Clinton has proposed the following changes to increase the franchise and promote fairness:

First, Congress should move quickly to pass legislation to repair that damage and restore the full protections that American voters need and deserve.

Second, we should implement the recommendations of the bipartisan presidential commission to improve voting. That commission was chaired by President Obama’s campaign lawyer and by Governor Mitt Romney campaign’s lawyer. And they actually agreed. And they set forth common sense reforms, including expanding early, absentee, and mail voting. Providing online voter registration. Establishing the principle that no one should ever have to wait more than 30 minutes to cast your vote.

Third, we should set a standard across our country of at least 20 days of early in-person voting everywhere—including opportunities for weekend and evening voting. If families coming out of church on Sunday before an election are inspired to go vote, they should be free to do just that. And we know that early in-person voting will reduce those long lines and give more citizens the chance to participate, especially those who have work or family obligations that make it difficult to get to the polls on Election Day.

[And] today I am calling for universal, automatic voter registration. Every citizen, every state in the Union. Everyone, every young man or young woman should be automatically registered to vote when they turn 18—unless they actively choose to opt out.

8 Comments

  1. Meanwhile, in Virginia:

    Gov. Terry McAuliffe said today that unpaid court costs and fees no longer will impede restoration of rights for felons who have completed their terms and probation or parole.

    “We have forced these men and women to battle a complicated and bewildering tangle of red tape to reach the voting booth, and too often we still turn them away,” McAuliffe said in a statement.

    “These men and women will still be required to pay their costs and fees, but their court debts will no longer serve as a financial barrier to voting, just as poll taxes did for so many years in Virginia.”

    McAuliffe said that as of today Virginia has restored the rights of more than 8,250 people in the first 17 months of his term – more than any previous governor in a complete four-year term.

    He said nearly 6,000 of the individuals — 71 percent — have registered to vote.

  2. Oregon’s new governor is making a changes……

    Should Voter Registration Be Automatic?

    “I forgot to register.”

    It’s one of the frequently cited reasons that people give every year for not voting in America, as well as a convenient excuse that the state of Oregon this week took away from its citizens. Under a law signed Monday by new Governor Kate Brown, any eligible Oregonian with a driver’s license will be automatically registered to vote and will receive a ballot by mail weeks before Election Day.

    ~snip~

    Still, as seen in the close, partisan votes in the Oregon legislature, the politics of automatic registration remain delicate. “We do like to say ‘modernize our voter registration system,’ as opposed to automatic,” Brown said toward the end of our interview. Making it easier to vote is one thing, but forcing it on people is another. Not everyone who isn’t registered just forgot to do so, and Parrish argued that many of her constituents don’t want to interact with the government any more than they already have to do. “Part of living in a democracy,” she said, “is choosing not to participate.”

    http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/03/should-voter-registration-be-automatic/388258/

    The comments from Julie Parrish are telling however…..the R’s will continue to block access to voting and discourage voters whenever they can.

  3. Glad to see the bill – even if Repubs won’t vote for it – it raises the fundamental right in a Democracy.

  4. Statement from the White House:

    This August, we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the enactment of the Voting Rights Act. As the President has noted, ‘the Voting Rights Act was one of the crowning achievements of our democracy, the result of Republican and Democratic efforts.’ Yet 50 years later, laws are being passed across the country that make it harder to vote. As the President said at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, ‘the Voting Rights Act, the culmination of so much blood, so much sweat and tears, the product of so much sacrifice in the face of wanton violence, the Voting Rights Act stands weakened’ while charging Congress to ‘pledge to make it their mission to restore that law this year.’

    The Administration applauds today’s efforts by Members of both the House and Senate to take up this charge to restore the promise of the Voting Rights Act to repair the damage done to this centerpiece of our democracy and honor the sacrifices made by so many who were willing to die to protect the rights it guarantees. Congress should give this bill the consideration it deserves and work together to protect that most essential right upon which our country was founded: the right to vote.

  5. There will be a rally in Roanoke Virginia on 2nd anniversary of Shelby County v Holder to encourage Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R) to consider the restoration of the VRA:

    ROANOKE— On Thursday, June 25, hundreds of concerned Americans will join civil rights and voting rights advocates in Roanoke, Virginia’s Elmwood Park to mark the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Shelby County v. Holder decision to gut the Voting Rights Act. Attendees will rally to defend the right to vote and to support a restoration of the Voting Rights Act. The rally will be attended by a large contingent of Roanoke-area residents who will be joined by buses and vans from Richmond and Tidewater, Virginia, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C.

    Quote from Wade Henderson, President and CEO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights:

    “In this 50th anniversary year of the Voting Rights Act, voters are more vulnerable to discrimination than at any time since the law was first passed in 1965. Congressional leadership has yet to act on restoring the law and Rep. Bob Goodlatte, who represents part of Roanoke and chairs the House Judiciary Committee, has yet to take action to protect voters from discrimination in Virginia and throughout the nation.

    “Despite public outcry since the Shelby decision, Rep. Goodlatte has refused to even acknowledge widespread voting discrimination or to allow a hearing in his committee. Virginians currently live under racially gerrymandered districts; they understand that protecting voting rights for all means holding Congress and Rep. Goodlatte accountable for ignoring the responsibility to act.”

    Participating organizations include the following national organizations alongside their state and local chapters: The Leadership Conference, Democracy Initiative, NAACP, NAACP Voter Fund, Communications Workers of America, A. Phillip Randolph Institute, Human Rights Campaign, Common Cause, Sierra Club, Asian Americans Advancing Justice—AAJC, the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism, Japanese American Citizens League, LULAC, Bend the Arc Jewish Action, League of Women Voters, NALEO, AFT, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, National Black Justice Coalition, National Action Network, People for the American Way, AFL-CIO, National LGBTQ Task Force, SEIU, and others.

    • A rally to restore the VRA in (Republic*) downstate Virginia? Good luck!

      *I use the word “Republic” in the same way the Rethugs refer to the “Democrat party.”

      • Yes, trying to get through to Rep. Bob Goodlatte is like banging your head against a brick wall. I never thought I would say it but I wish Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) was still running the House Judiciary Committee. He is a repugnant man but he is a strong proponent of the VRA. He hates that new VRAA, though, because it calls out the voter id laws that he so loves. He wants a “bipartisan” bill, meaning one where the fairness is squeezed out and all that is left is the fig leaf.

  6. There will be a march for Voting Rights in North Carolina on July 13th, sponsored by the Moral Monday group:

    Why We Must March

    On July 13, a federal court in Winston-Salem will hear North Carolina NAACP v. McCrory, our lawsuit to reverse North Carolina’s unconstitutional and immoral voter suppression law. North Carolina’s law is the first and the worst since the 2013 Shelby v. Holder decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Our voting rights, gained because people stood up despite great consequences in Selma and across the South, have been compromised. Now we must march!

    The outcome of this historic case in North Carolina will have an impact on voting rights across the nation. This is a battle for voting rights for all of us. We will not surrender the most fundamental right of a democracy: the right to vote. Just like in Selma, we must march!

    Join us in Winston-Salem on July 13 at 5:00 p.m. for a Mass Moral Monday March for Voting Rights.

    ThinkProgress reports:

    Reverend Dr. William Barber with the North Carolina NAACP, the main group challenging the law, told reporters on a conference call Wednesday that because that law was passed right after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, the case will “shine a glaring light” on how badly those protections are needed.

    “Our lawsuit challenging this monster voter suppression law will test the strength of the Voting Rights Act today, and what happens in that courtroom will determine what happens in the nation, it will set the course of jurisprudence for many, many years to come,” he said. “We aim expose just how bad the Shelby decision was, and to show the world we will not surrender the most fundamental right of our democracy: the right to vote.”

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