Fifty years after “Bloody Sunday,” the fight for voting rights continues in North Carolina. After the 2013 Supreme Court decision to strike down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, allowing jurisdictions to change voting laws without federal oversight, North Carolina passed a bill that placed new restrictions on the voting process. The law requires voters to show government-issued identification at the polls, shortens early voting, ends same-day registration and “increases the number of poll observers who can challenge a voter’s eligibility,” according to the LA Times. Despite the blow to the Voting Rights Act, the NAACP and …
Fifty years after “Bloody Sunday,” the fight for voting rights continues in North Carolina.
After the 2013 Supreme Court decision to strike down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, allowing jurisdictions to change voting laws without federal oversight, North Carolina passed a bill that placed new restrictions on the voting process. The law requires voters to show government-issued identification at the polls, shortens early voting, ends same-day registration and “increases the number of poll observers who can challenge a voter’s eligibility,” according to the LA Times.
Despite the blow to the Voting Rights Act, the NAACP and the civil rights organization Advancement Project are taking on the “voter suppression” using portions of the act that were left intact by the Supreme Court verdict. Jasmyn Richardson, a staff attorney with the Advancement Project, joined HuffPost Live on Monday to discuss the suit.
The North Carolina law targets many “things that a lot of young people, people of color and poor people were using to get people out to vote and to register to vote”and the Advancement Project is challenging it based on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and the 14th and 15th amendments, Richardson explained to host Alyona Minkovski.
Richardson said the lawsuit, which is one of many, is set to go to trial this summer.
“We are hopeful, but know that this will be a long route,” she said. “There’s an entire slew of lawsuits going on around the country … that will eventually go up to the Supreme Court level, so that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act can be clearly defined and hopefully can be used as a mechanism until there is a voting rights amendment act put forth by Congress.”
Watch the full HuffPost Live conversation about Selma and the 1965 Voting Rights Act here.
Link to article:
North Carolina Is The Latest Battleground In The Fight For Voting Rights
