Earlier today, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled that Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), which required some states and localities, mostly in the South, to obtain preclearance from the U.S. Justice Department before implementing changes to voting laws and procedures, is unconstitutional, in effect, rendering the Section 5 preclearance provision of the VRA inoperative and making it much harder to enforce the VRA.
These days, deliberately disenfranchising ethnic minorities from being able to elect the public officials of their choice has become commonplace in states like Wisconsin and Ohio, hundreds or even thousands of miles away from the Deep South.
It is now time for Congress to re-write Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act so that all states and localities of the United States would be legally required to obtain preclearance from the U.S. Justice Department before implementing changes to voting laws and procedures.
You can sign my petition to convince Congress to implement national preclearance of changes to state and local voting laws and procedures here.