WASHINGTON – Today, the House of Representatives passed the Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 invalidated by the Supreme Court’s 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision.  Following passage of the bill, Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (OH-11), Chair of the House Administration Subcommittee on Elections, released the following statement:

“The right to vote, as guaranteed by the Constitution, is essential to our American democracy.  Yet, our nation has a long, dark history of denying or restricting access to the ballot box.  After holding hearings across the country to examine the state of voting rights, one thing is clear: Voter suppression is alive and well in America today. 

“Since the Shelby decision, states have enacted laws that have made voting harder, if not impossible, for many Americans, especially Black, Native, Latino and language-minority citizens.  Today’s passage of the VRAA is the first step towards restoring the Voting Rights Act to its full strength, and ensuring every eligible citizen has the unfettered, unabridged right to vote.”

The Voting Rights Advancement Act updates the formula used to determine which states and localities must pre-clear their voting changes with the Department of Justice before they can take effect.  It also requires jurisdictions to publicly disclose all voting changes and establishes a process for reviewing voting changes in jurisdictions nationwide of known discriminatory practices.

Background:

The Supreme Court’s 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision struck down key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, eliminating requirements for certain states to “pre-clear” their voting law changes with the Department of Justice.  In the Court’s decision, Chief Justice John Roberts acknowledged that “voting discrimination still exists; no one doubts that,” but said the coverage formula, used to determine which states and jurisdictions are subject to federal preclearance when changing election laws, was outdated and could no longer be used.   However, the Court also said that Congress was responsible for drafting “another formula based on current conditions.”

At the beginning of the 116th Congress, the Committee on House Administration reconstituted the Subcommittee on Elections, chaired by Rep. Fudge, to collect testimony and evidence on the state of voting rights in America today.  The Subcommittee held hearings in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, and Washington D.C., as well as an inaugural listening session in Texas, to gather contemporaneous evidence of tactics states have used to suppress the vote.  This evidence formed the basis of a report on Voting Rights and Election Administration in the United States of America, released November 13, 2019 by the Committee on House Administration.

The report has been incorporated into the report of the House Committee on the Judiciary in support of the VRAA, and provides evidence that voter suppression exists in America today and federal preclearance enforcement is still needed.  The Voting Rights Advancement Act addresses discriminatory practices evidenced in the report.  They include, but may not be limited to, voter roll purges; closure, consolidation and relocation of polling places; early voting cutbacks; denying access to language assistance support and materials; and discriminatory voter identification requirements.

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