The Fight For Voting Rights Is Heating Up

     The Voting Rights Act of 1965 worked. Even over the filibuster of Southern senators who claimed that voting is a state matter while suppressing African-American voters, the federal government was given the power to enforce the right to vote in 15 specific states, among countless other provisions. It was this provision, though, that was struck down in the Supreme Court case Shelby v. Holder in 2013, essentially giving states free reign to pass restrictive voter suppression laws and giving impetus to the modern fight for voting rights.

     These are the laws that are being passed and/or proposed in virtually every state across the nation. Based on the unproven (and, as a matter of fact, disproven) lie that Donald Trump was cheated of a second term, states like Arizona, Georgia, and Iowa have passed laws giving partisan boards control over electors and election boards, making minor technical voting violations felonies, strictly limiting early voting and voting by mail, banning same-day voter registration, eliminating voter drop boxes in majority-black communities, and even banning the use of religious vehicles to bring groups of churchgoers (almost exclusively African-Americans) to the polls. 

     The John Lewis Voting Rights Act, named after the late civil rights activist and congressman, was reintroduced on August 17th. The bill would restore and strengthen provisions of the 1965 VRA that were rendered null and void by the Shelby case. This comes after August 4th, when senators Alex Padilla and Jon Ossoff introduced the Right to Vote Act, which gives Americans the affirmative right to vote and establishes a due process for appealing disenfranchisement. In June, all 50 Republican senators decided not to even begin debate on any voting rights legislation, demonstrating that what is occurring in the state legislatures is, in fact, Jim Crow 2.0. In the balance was the For The People Act, which, among other things, would make Election Day a federal holiday. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has indicated he does not intend to abandon the bill.

     As Texas Democrats continue to fight for voting rights in the face of arrest, Democratic governors veto voter suppression bills passed by Republican legislatures, and Kamala Harris meets with voting rights activists from communities around the country, it is safe to say the fight for voting rights is heating up this month. Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton both expanded the right to vote, and, in the face of this unprecedented challenge, it is time for President Biden to do the same.

     Voting is the most sacred right, the right from and by which all others are derived in this government of the people, by the people, and for the people.