vra4us

On June 25, 2013, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to strike down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, allowing states to change voting laws without federal approval. “The Supreme Court’s decision is at odds with recent history. The Voting Rights Act was vital in 2012, not just 1965. For nearly five decades, it has been the nation’s most effective tool to eradicate racial discrimination in voting. And it is still critical today,” say Brennan Center for Justice President Michael Waldman.

Congress now has the duty to upgrade this key protection and ensure our elections remain free, fair, and accessible for ALL Americans. But with a deadlocked Congress, incapable of passing even a Farm Bill, it won’t be easy. Voting issues have become highly politicized, and some Republicans don’t want the Voting Rights Act used in legal efforts to strike down their restrictive new “voter ID” laws.

NOW is the time to take action. The Court’s ruling pointed out a little-understood reality: the United States does not, in the most fundamental sense, protect your right to vote.

“Because there is no right to vote in the U.S. Constitution, individual states set their own electoral policies and procedures. This leads to confusing and sometimes contradictory policies regarding ballot design, polling hours, voting equipment, voter registration requirements, and ex-felon voting rights. As a result, our electoral system is divided into 50 states, more than 3,000 counties, and approximately 13,000 voting districts, all separate and unequal,” says reform group FairVote executive director Rob Richie.

Congressmen Mark Pocan and Keith Ellison, both former state legislators who’ve long championed voting-rights issues, last May announced a proposal for an explicit guarantee of the right to vote added to the U.S. Constitution.

“The right to vote is too important to be left unprotected,” explained Pocan at the state capitol in Madison, Wisconsin, where Republicans were rushing to approve restrictive voter ID legislation in time for the 2014 election. “At a time when there are far too many efforts to disenfranchise Americans, a voting rights amendment would positively affirm our founding principle that our country is at its strongest when everyone participates. As the world’s leading democracy, we must demand of ourselves what we demand of others—a guaranteed right to vote for all.”