As we celebrate the 53rd anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, it is worth taking a moment to recognize why it is still important today. This landmark legislation made it illegal to use discriminatory practices to block voters from voting or to make it harder to exercise our constitutional right to vote. Despite the guarantees provided by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, states and localities persisted for over 100 years in actively obstructing African-Americans from exercising their right to vote by imposing grandfather clauses, poll taxes, literacy tests, or tests to correctly guess the number of jelly beans in a jar. Today, these schemes seem absurd. But the Voting Rights Act helped eliminate discriminatory voting practices, and helped our country live up to its promise that everyone, no matter their race, has the right to vote.
However, the VRA has recently faced new challenges, especially after the Supreme Court gutted a section designed to restrict violations by states with a history of discriminatory practices.
A recent study by the Brennan Center for Justice found that states purged more than 16 million voters from the rolls between 2014 and 2016, 33 percent more than between 2006 and 2008.
In light of this recent trend, Congress must do more to ensure all citizens are able to freely exercise this precious right. That is why I am a co-sponsor of legislation to fully restore Section 5 of the VRA and of the Voter Empowerment Act, legislation that will improve, modernize and help ensure that every voter is treated equally at the polls.
The Voter Empowerment Act protects the integrity of elections by improving eligible voters’ access to the ballot box. It modernizes voter registration using existing technology to automatically and permanently enroll consenting eligible voters while also making certain voter information is secure and accurate. It would also provide for online registration, allow same day voter registration at the polls and simplify the registration process for members of the military serving overseas. I also support expanding early voting opportunities and am pleased to see the additional sites added in Marion County for our next election.
The right to vote is the foundation of our democratic system. Instead of making it more difficult, let’s make it easier for citizens to vote whenever possible because the first step of a truly representative democracy is participation.
