Protecting Our Voting Rights
Our October Thursday with the League presentation by Dr. J. Morgan Kousser, Professor Emeritus of History and Social Science at Caltech, was timely and informative, on a topic of intense concern for the League and for American democracy. He provided a realistic look at the legal and legislative forms voter suppression has taken over the years and how pending bills in Congress can overcome it.
Professor Kousser has devoted his career to the history of minority voting rights and has testified as an expert witness in many landmark voting rights cases. We benefited from his meticulous research. He started his presentation with a review of key sections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, particularly Section 5, which required certain jurisdictions with histories of suppression and discrimination to obtain pre-clearance from the Justice Department for any election law changes.
Since the passage of the 1965 act, two primary challenges to voting rights have arisen: first, the Supreme Court decisions in Shelby County v. Holder (2013) and Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee (2021) limited the interpretation of the original act; second, voter suppression laws proposed or passed at the state level threaten to infringe on voter rights.
In Shelby v. Holder, Chief Justice Roberts famously said that the justification for Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is obsolete because the localities named, primarily in the Deep South, no longer discriminate or restrict voting rights. Professor Kousser’s amazing database of “discriminatory incidents” and cases proves otherwise. His slides with charts and maps illustrated the situation in stark images.
Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee weakened the applicability of Section 2, which barred discrimination against minorities in state and local elections. The Court found that Arizona’s rejection of ballots cast in the wrong precinct and of early or absentee ballots collected by anyone except an election official or other authorized individual were not in violation of Section 2. Professor Kousser referenced the way this interpretation of the law effectively disenfranchised many Native Americans located on reservations some fifty miles from an authorized collection point.
At the state level, pending laws would restrict early voting, restrict vote by mail, reduce the number and availability of voting sites, and reduce minority representation through redistricting.
Professor Kousser finished his presentation with an analysis of pending federal voting protection legislation: The Freedom to Vote Act seeks to overcome restrictions by the states, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would restore Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act based on updated occurrences of suppression and discrimination. Both are vigorously supported by the League.
LWV-PA President Martha Zavala began the meeting with an important reminder: Like William Shatner (a.k.a. Captain Kirk in the television series Star Trek)—who at the age of ninety achieved his dream of traveling to space—we must fearlessly pursue our dreams as well, including fair and open elections. We must also ignore the voices that tell us we are too old and need to get out of the way. Thank you, Martha. She wrapped up the program with targeted advocacy: We all need to contact our senators and tell them to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. If you missed this critical presentation, you can view a video recording on the LWV-PA YouTube channel.
—Hester Bell and Katherine Gavzy
