From Common Cause (http://www.commoncause.org):
Our right to vote is fundamental to democracy—but without the Voting Rights Act, it’s in serious danger. Add your name to protect voting rights today at https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/protect-our-voting-rights-restore-the-vra-today.
We just marked the 53rd anniversary of the landmark Voting Rights Act (VRA). For nearly five decades, this Civil Rights Era legislation made the ballot box more accessible by protecting voters from discriminatory laws, needless barriers, and partisan dirty tricks. It stopped thousands of bad laws from taking effect by requiring that the Department of Justice approve any changes to voting in states and counties with a history of voting discrimination.
But in 2013, the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, inviting opportunistic politicians to launch a series of attacks on our rights. In just five years, lawmakers nationwide have passed discriminatory laws that the VRA would have stopped — making it harder for eligible Americans to have their votes counted.
The Voting Rights Advancement Act (H.R. 2978/S. 1419) would take the proactive, pro-voter approach that worked for nearly 50 years with the VRA and bring it to every state and county. With voter purges and other suppression tactics are jeopardizing our democracy across the country, it’s especially important we speak up now.
The VRA has a long history of bipartisan support — Congress near-unanimously renewed it and President Bush signed it as recently as 2006. But now, our most cherished right has become a partisan political football. We can’t allow that to happen.
When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, he called it “a triumph for freedom as huge as any victory that has ever been won on the battlefield.” Now we must work to preserve that freedom for future generations.
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