As the United States embarks on its first presidential election in 50 years without a fully operable Voting Rights Act (VRA), a coalition of close to 90 voting and civil rights groups is calling on state election officials to ensure that no one is disenfranchised at the ballot box on November 8.
“As you know, the VRA protected the voting rights of racial and ethnic minorities in several states and local jurisdictions where they had been historically discriminated against in voting,” reads the letter (pdf) sent Wednesday from groups including the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the NAACP, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Friends of the Earth-U.S., and the League of Women Voters.
But those protections were hobbled in 2013 by the U.S. Supreme Court’s “devastating decision” in Shelby County v. Holder, the letter notes. “Following Shelby, numerous states have passed voting laws, which several federal courts agree have a disparate impact on people of color and language minorities.” Read Common Dreams‘ coverage of the fallout here.
“Since Congress has failed to pass a bill to restore the VRA…we are extremely concerned that there will be widespread voter discrimination in the upcoming presidential election,” the groups continue.
What’s more, they point to recent news that, as a result of Shelby, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is scaling back its deployment of election observers during this year’s presidential election. “The potentially detrimental effect of the absence of this critical voter protection tool cannot be overstated,” the letter reads.
“State election officials must address these unprecedented threats head on.”
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