The Bipartisan Voting Rights Amendment Act, along with the Voters' Rights Advancement Act and others, has been written, aimed at states that discriminate, obviously many Southern states but also others, given recent primary events in Wisconsin, and most lately three counties in New York City that had been previously subject to preclearance, as was Arizona, another locus of primary disasters.
Although Congress was in recess a few hours before the briefing was held, those members of the Congressional Black Caucus who attended were praised for resisting the temptation to jump on the next plane homeward.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee praised Chairman Conyers, who "walked the walk and talked the talk."
The city of Houston, buried under a flood while pouring rain continues, has not yet been declared a disaster area. This must happen soon. Consider that all of these victims have lost all of the IDs necessary to permit them to vote, another participant added later.
The Voting Rights Act represents the principle One Person, One Vote rather than expanding opportunities for African Americans to vote, said Lee. She quoted Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg that polio, though not seen, reeks tremendous harm. Opponents are suing President Obama; Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, still functional, is expensive to enforce since the burden of proof rests with the Department of Justice rather than defendants.
"We are in jail when we don't have voting rights."
Texas justified its changes on the basis of depleted funding--1.3 million were kept from voting, that is, .7 to 2.4 percent according to the New York Times statistician Nate Silver.
Ari Berman, columnist on voting rights for The Nation since 2011 and now recent author of the
acclaimed history of voting rights Give Us the Ballot listed outrageous details and anecdotal information about voter suppression, including Holocaust survivors unable to vote because their birth certificates had been burned. Section 5 is our polio vaccine and armor against suppression, protecting and providing for veterans and other victimized groups: blacks, Latinos, other underprivileged populations, seniors, college students, felons, and handicapped populations, among others, he said. Seventeen new states, among them swing states, will have new regulations obstructing their voting experience in November, which could impact 16 million citizens. Among the twenty-one presidential debates held so far, no mention was made of the voting rights crisis. Opponents like Chief Justice John Roberts have labored for years to repeal the Voting Rights Act, he said, since the tenure of President Reagan. While Sen. Strom Thurmond headed the Judiciary Committee, President Ronald Reagan signed a continuation of the Voting Rights Act, he recalled. Added support for this "crown jewel" came from Sens. Ted Kennedy and Bob Dole.
Chairman John Conyers expressed his agreement with all that had been said and traced his own entry into Congress to inspiration he drew from Martin Luther King in the sixties. He had been a practicing attorney but then he aimed for the House Judiciary Committee, where he later became Chair and then Ranking Member--he was on that committee when the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965.
Section 5 must be revised, repaired, and bulletproofed against the Supreme Court, he said. Anyone wearing the pin "Register to Vote" risked their lives. We must fix Section 5, making voter registration easier, protecting early voting, using mail-in ballots, bringing back same-day registration. . . . Voter fraud is not the problem, but the low participation this myth has engendered will definitely cut into voter participation in November.
House Speaker Paul Ryan pledged his support to Conyers, Rep. Terri Sewell added later.
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