General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDemocrats Need To Go To War For Voting Rights
Our country has changed, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his decision in Shelby County v. Holder. Congress had reauthorized the Voting Rights Act in 2006 by a 98-0 Senate vote and a gaping 390-33 tally in the House, but in 2013 the Supreme Courts conservative justices voted 5-4 to strike down its key pre-authorization provision.
The result has been predictable ― systematic disenfranchisement of voters across the South and beyond, undoubtedly contributing to the defeat of Democratic gubernatorial candidates in Florida and Georgia (the latter is still being contested), and perhaps even enabling Ted Cruz in Texas to keep his Senate seat.
Now that Democrats have reclaimed the House and key governors mansions, and flipped hundreds of state legislative seats, we have a chance to do something about it. Its time for them to go all-in on the universal right to transparent and accessible voting.
Re-reading the Roberts decision the day after the 2018 midterms is brutal. He blithely assures America that the days of Jim Crow are over and that the current conditions in no way resemble those of 1965. He writes that while any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions. Because of that perceived mismatch, he claimed, he and his four colleagues took the gravest and most delicate duty of the Supreme Court and struck down a law as unconstitutional. He said that racism was still bad, of course, but that Congress would have to come up with some new rubric to protect the franchise of voters of color.
Congress, or rather the Republicans who have maintained control of at least one chamber of Congress since 2013, has not developed a new rubric. Instead, Republican lawmakers and officials, especially those in the very states governed by the VRA, have touted the nonexistent threat of voter fraud in order to systematically re-disenfranchise voters of color through a variety of means.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-voting-rights-house-democrats_us_5be333f9e4b0dbe871a61b88
murielm99
(30,775 posts)Going to war is the right expression.
This country is not more racist under 45. The racism is just more out in the open.
Kurt V.
(5,624 posts)peacebuzzard
(5,183 posts)Lulu KC
(2,574 posts)I am truly shocked by how many people seem truly shocked that voter's rights are being suppressed when this happened FIVE YEARS AGO. It has to be a priority.
Really, thank you.
safeinOhio
(32,733 posts)Any citizen that is refused the right to vote, will be exempt from all local and state taxes for 4 years. Not only will more people have their votes count, many repubs will try to be denied in order to get out of paying taxes. Win, win.
uponit7771
(90,367 posts)BumRushDaShow
(129,637 posts)And we should now have plenty of data on which states need to be included in the list requiring "pre-clearance", and it certainly is no longer just the south (or "parts" of other states).
UCmeNdc
(9,601 posts)the GOP's voter suppression tactics. (Georgia and Kansas too.)
Plus why have elections without any paper ballots? Why not have a verifiable, transparent, ballot recount trail? Treat voting just like we treat the counting and transferring of money.