Congressional Democrats Launch a New Strategy to Restore the Voting Rights Act
*You can call it the VRA 2.0. When the Supreme Court gutted section 5 of the Voting Rights Act I saw a bright side – that the gutting provided the opportunity to come back with a better, more wide-ranging voting rights law. And that’s what these legislators have in mind. It’s a long, uphill road with the goal of moving beyond the limits of the 1965 Act. VL
By Ari Berman, The Nation
The 2016 election is one year away and many states and cities hold local elections today. But not everyone will be able to cast a ballot this year or next.
[tweet_dis]The 2016 election will be the first presidential election in 50 years without thefull protections of the Voting Rights Act.[/tweet_dis] Twenty-one states have put new voting restrictions in place since the 2010 election, with voters in 15 states facing these obstacles for the first presidential cycle in 2016, including in crucial swing states like North Carolina and Wisconsin.Legislation has been introduced in Congress to restore the Voting Rights Act (VRA) following the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision gutting the law, but neither the modest Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2014 or the more ambitiousVoting Rights Advancement Act of 2015, which both have bipartisan support, have moved legislatively.
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[Photo by Korean Resource Center/Flickr]
