U.S. Rep James Clyburn tasked to lead House efforts to Revise Voting Rights Act

U.S. Rep James Clyburn. PHOTO/File

Congressman James Clyburn (Democrat – South Carolina), has been tasked by House Democrats in the U.S. Congress to lead efforts to revise the Voting Rights Act following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate Section 4 of the same Voting Rights Act.

“I tasked Jim Clyburn of South Carolina to take the lead on this issue to bring together in a bipartisan way the ideas that could meet the criteria, or be a set of criteria that could meet the court’s judgment,” said Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in a press conference on held late last week.

“Section 4 needs to be written in such a way that covers any state law that is designed to yield a specific result outside of fundamental fairness,” Clyburn said in an interview, noting that many of the state voting provisions that he found most problematic were not in states covered under the pre-clearance formula the Court struck down. He added, “every state ought to be subject to some standards.”

According to Clyburn, with these federal standards, if a state passed a controversial voting law, a voter could file suit citing these federal provisions.

Read more: The Grio