The 2016 presidential election is the first since the Supreme Court’s 2013 Shelby County v. Holderdecision to strike down two sections of the Voting Rights Act, both of which had served as crucial structural safeguards against voter disenfranchisement since the ‘60s. This time around, states and municipalities have the freedom to run their own elections without oversight from the Justice Department. They can run democracy into the ground, if they want to, and in many cases, they have.
The VRA outlined a coverage formula that required states with a strong history of structurally disenfranchising voters be subject to federal oversight. The sections of the law on the Supreme Court’s chopping block — Section 4(b) and Section 5 — stipulated that states and municipalities that perfunctorily precluded voters would be subject to a preclearance requirement, which required these states to seek federal approval before instituting any changes to their voting practices.
Advocacy groups have tracked the effects of Shelby County v. Holder since 2013, and they claim there has been a clear uptick in racially discriminatory voter suppression since the ruling — in fact, such a trend is plain to see. For the full article click here
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