On Friday, House Democrats passed the Voting Rights Advancement Act, a bill that would restore and expand the protections of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court's Republican majority gutted in 2013. The bill passed 228-187 with all 227 Democrats and Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick voting in favor while the other 186 Republicans and Republican-turned-independent Rep. Justin Amash voted against the bill.
The new legislation would establish a new formula to determine which states and localities must "preclear" any proposed changes to election laws and procedures with the Justice Department. The previous preclearance regime, which was struck down in 2013, applied to states and localities—largely in the South—with a history of racial discrimination in their voting laws.
Under the new setup, any state where officials have committed at least 15 voting rights violations over a 25-year period would be required to obtain preclearance for 10 years. If the state itself, rather than localities within the state, is responsible for the violations, it would take only 10 violations to place it under preclearance. In addition, any particular locality could individually be subjected to preclearance if it commits at least three violations.
Based on this formula, the VRAA would put 11 states back under preclearance: Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. While most of these states are still in the South (and also under Republican control), the list also includes the two largest Democratic-leaning states in the country, California and New York.
Of course, with Republicans in control of the presidency and Senate, this bill won't become law. However, Democrats could pass it if they win back the White House and Senate next year and eliminate the filibuster.
