2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumEverything That’s Happened Since Supreme Court Ruled on Voting Rights Act
by Kara Brandeisky and Mike Tigas
ProPublica, Nov. 1, 2013, 11:24 a.m.
... One important technical point: the Supreme Court actually left Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act the part of the law that describes how preclearance works intact. Instead, the Court struck down Section 4, which explains which states and localities are subject to preclearance. If Congress amends Section 4, the Justice Department can start enforcing Section 5 again ...
The Supreme Courts June 2013 decision also effectively shifted the burden from states to citizens. Before, a state subject to preclearance had to demonstrate that a new voting law was not discriminatory and let voting law experts in the Justice Department evaluate it before it could be implemented. Now it is up to voters to challenge voting laws by filing lawsuits under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination.
But most court cases involving Section 2 have been limited to redistricting, not other controversial voting measures, says Yale University law professor Heather Gerken.
With redistricting, theres always one very wealthy political party or another who can hire some very good lawyers and go into court and challenge it, Gerken said. But a lot of the types of things that were challenged under Section 5 were smaller questions, like, Can you change a polling place? Can you shut down early voting hours in ways that might affect the black community? There are things smaller than redistricting that can fall through the cracks ...
http://www.propublica.org/article/voting-rights-by-state-map
Heather MC
(8,084 posts)Last edited Sat Nov 9, 2013, 02:29 PM - Edit history (1)
No State has the right to restrict voting or make it harder to register to vote.
All states must allow mail in voting at least 30 days before an election
All states must allow same day registrating and Voting
Any voter Id laws cannot go into effect until two years after the law has pass, giving states and voters time to get up to date ID's
All schools with voting age students must have voter registration forms located in the Library
No state can amend these rules in an attempt to create voter supression.
If I left anything out Add it.
Shoot if ALEC can write a bill so can I