OntheWilderSide

A group of Republicans in the Senate are preparing to hold up the re-authorization of the 1965 Voting Rights Act—the landmark legislation that prevents partisan officials from denying minorities their right to vote. If the VRA is not reauthorized soon, it will open the door to voter discrimination in some of the highest risk areas around the country.  

After the 8 hour lines, wrongly “purged” voter rolls and blatant intimidation many minority voters faced in Ohio and Florida in the last 2 elections, our nation cannot afford to make this problem any worse.

Next week, the NAACP is bringing over 2000 volunteers to Washington D.C. to walk door to door in the Senate making the case for the Voting Rights Act. You can help.

The 1965 Voting Rights Act is one of the greatest accomplishments of the civil rights movement. It ended the Jim-Crow era poll taxes and “literacy tests” that had been used since the civil war to stop African Americans from voting. It forbids intimidating minority voters away from the polls, and bans drawing district lines to divide and diffuse minority votes.¹

Though most of Congress supports re-authorizing the VRA, a right-wing bloc of Republicans managed to derail the bill for over a month in the House,² (a blockade that will finally end today).³ Now, the Voting Rights Act is headed to the Senate, where, as the AP is reporting, “The objections from House conservatives are being echoed by their colleagues across the Capitol.”⁴ It’s easier for a small group to stall things in the Senate, and a delay of even a few more weeks would push it off the Senate calendar for the rest of the year.

If the VRA is not reauthorized, several key provisions will simply expire. These include the requirement to provide multi-lingual ballots in relevant areas and special scrutiny for states and counties with a clear history of voter discrimination. Perhaps most importantly, the law allowing the federal government to investigate in high risk areas when there is specific evidence of voter intimidation could be wiped off the books—simply by continuing to delay.⁵

The NAACP, People for the American Way and other civil rights groups have made this their top priority, and they’ve asked us to join the fight. This petition will be unusually effective because we’ll print out your signatures and comments and give them to NAACP volunteers to hand deliver to your Senators. This not only ensures that you will be heard right way, but it adds great power to the NAACP effort.

Thanks for all that you do,

P.S. We’re working with Color of Change, our sister organization that uses the internet to to empower Black Americans and their allies to make government more responsive to the concerns of Black Americans, as part of a broad-based effort to protect every American’s right to vote.  Reauthorizing the VRA is a key piece in this protection, but there’s much more to be done.

You can learn more or sign up for Color of Change yourself, at: http://www.colorofchange.org

P.P.S For more information about the NAACP volunteer drive (or to join it yourself) go to http://www.naacp.org

Sources:
1. United State Department of Justice
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/intro/intro_b.htm

2. “Voting Rights Act Renewal Divides GOP,” Los Angeles Times, July 12, 2006
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-voting12jul12,1,2650498.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&track=crosspromo

3. “House to take up Voting Rights Extension,” Reuters, July 12, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1933&id=8206-632777-FCpthtsIzZjYjFm3I2zZ3g&t=4

3. “House Takes Up Voting Rights Act Renewal,” Associated Press, July 13, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1934&id=8206-632777-FCpthtsIzZjYjFm3I2zZ3g&t=5

4. People for the American Way has produced a great fact sheet on what’s at stake in the Voting Rights Act re-authorization
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=20829#2

Filed under: election, grassroots democracy, reform, US Politics Tagged: | UFPJ, Uncategorized