TO DO: Voting Rights Act
Source: People for the American Way

http://site.pfaw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=VRA&autologin=true

Just yesterday, the Justice Department announced it will ramp up its efforts to help fight the flood of voting rights attacks in the states using the parts of the Voting Rights Act that remain intact.

It’s tremendous and encouraging news that the DOJ is taking a stand against right-wing legislators and governors enacting disenfranchising voter ID laws, gerrymandering to dilute minority voting strength and putting up barriers to voter registration. We know that, following the Supreme Court’s decision last month striking down the formula by which some states qualify for extra federal scrutiny in changing their voting laws, we have an uphill battle.

The fact remains that because of the Supreme Court’s conservative 5-4 majority, a valuable and effective tool in combating voter suppression remains off the table -- for now.

Congress can and must restore strength and effectiveness to Section 5 of the VRA without delay.

Please join our petition urging Congress to act now to save the Voting Right Act!

Last week, the Supreme Court’s right-wing majority gutted one of the most effective provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

By invalidating a necessary formula in the VRA’s Section 4 that determined which states and jurisdictions received extra scrutiny in passing new voting laws, the Court effectively neutered Section 5 of the VRA -- which has been one of the most effective tools in protecting voting rights for nearly 50 years. Now Section 5 covers … nowhere.

But while Section 5 was rendered toothless for now, it was NOT struck down … and that is very, very important.

The Supreme Court essentially put the ball in Congress’s court. Congress now has the ability, and theresponsibility, to put teeth back into Section 5 of the VRA as an important tool to combat voter suppression and protect everyone’s right to vote.

That’s why People For the American Way is launching an effort to make sure Congress acts to restore the effectiveness of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act by passing a new Section 4 formula.

Please join us by adding your name to our emergency petition to save the VRA right now.

Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, known as the preclearance provision, requires states and jurisdictions with a well-documented history of racially discriminatory voting practices to get changes to their voting laws pre-approved by the Department of Justice or by a three-judge District Court in the District of Columbia … BEFORE the laws can take effect and potentially cost voters their rights. Section 4 provided the formula which determined those jurisdictions requiring preclearance -- until last week when the Supreme Court struck down that formula.

Chief Justice Roberts and his ultraconservative cohorts on the Court argued that since the formula had been around for a while, it was unfair to states to be “punished” for what they had done a long time ago. But that completely ignores several things:

• Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act has WORKED, and the Court’s logic seems to say because it has worked so well, it should be scrapped -- Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg pointed out the ridiculousness of that argument in her dissent, saying it’s like throwing away your umbrella in a thunderstorm because you’re not getting wet.
• It was only a few years ago, in 2006, that a REPUBLICAN-controlled Congress -- after many hearings and much deliberation -- reauthorized the Voting Rights Act, including the formula for preclearance, by an overwhelming, bipartisan vote (and a unanimous vote in the U.S. Senate).
• The preclearance states were on that list, and remained on it, for good reason -- in the last year alone, the preclearance requirement has been used to stop restrictive photo ID laws, redistricting plans and restrictions on early voting … and in the immediate wake of the Supreme Court’s decision last week, some preclearance states have already moved to enact some of these barriers to voting.
• The 15th Amendment to the Constitution explicitly gives Congress the authority to pass legislation to prevent racial discrimination in voting, making Chief Justice Roberts’s decision a shining example of the judicial activism that conservatives like Roberts purport to despise -- so much for “calling balls and strikes!”

As you can see, it’s urgent that we right this wrong and put the teeth back in Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

Please take action right now by signing the petition and telling Congress to act without delay to save the VRA.

Make no mistake, until Congress updates the preclearance formula and restores the effectiveness of Section 5, countless voters will be disenfranchised.

The importance of Section 5 rests in the fact that it’s a remedy that protects voters’ rights before they are denied their right to vote. Other parts of the Voting Rights Act like Section 2 allow people to challenge legislation and policy that deny voting rights, but only after the fact, when it’s most often too late for many voters who have already lost the opportunity to cast a vote that counts.

Please tell Congress to act now, and then help spread the word.

Thank you for standing up for democracy and the right to vote -- the American Way.