Thursday, August 06, 2015

Happy Birthday Voting Rights Act!

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965!

The Voting Rights Act protects the rights of minority voters to register to vote, vote and be represented in government.

Unfortunately, in 2013, the Supreme Court weakened provisions of the Voting Rights Act that were in place to prevent Southern states with histories of suppressing the minority vote to pass laws and redraw districts in ways that disenfranchise minorities.  Now,  instead of these states' voting procedures being carefully monitored by feds to ensure the rights of voters, voters must rely on filing a case and going through the court system to address each case of voter suppression.

We need to strengthen the Act again.

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