Politics
Voting Rights Act to protect African-American and minority voters should be upheld – Obama
American voters. PHOTO/John Gress/Getty Images
U.S. President Barack Obama argued Friday for keeping a key provision of federal voting rights law in place, saying it will become harder but not impossible to help people who believe their rights at the polls have been violated if the Supreme Court decides to strike down that part of the law.
The court has scheduled oral arguments for Wednesday on a challenge from Shelby County, Alabama, near Birmingham, to a section of the Voting Rights Act. The provision requires all or parts of 16 states with a history of racial discrimination, mostly in the South, to get approval from the Justice Department or federal court in Washington before making any changes in the way they hold elections, such as moving a polling place.
The appeal argues that places covered by the law have made such progress that Washington oversight is unnecessary. Opponents of the provision also cite racial progress in the decades since the landmark law was enacted in 1965 that led to the election and recent re-election of Obama, the country’s first African-American president.
Defenders of the provision say it’s still needed, particularly in light of efforts in many states during the past election cycle to impose new requirements on voters, such as shortening the window for early voting or requiring voters to show photo identification before they cast a ballot, which some argue disproportionately affect African-Americans and other racial minorities – and indirectly suppress their voting rights.
Obama said removing the oversight requirement would make it a lot harder to give relief to voters who feel aggrieved. If that were to happen, he said, such voters would have to wait until potential obstacles have been put in place before they could then sue in an attempt to have them overturned.
“So generally speaking, you’d see less protection before an election with respect to voting rights,” Obama said.
In his State of the Union address, early this month, Obama revealed that he would create a commission to recommend ways to help improve the voting experience in response widespread complaints about long waits, requirements to show photo ID before voting and shortened periods for early voting.
