Diverse Coalition Prepare Defense of Voting Rights Act

Defense of Voting Rights Act:

Charity FairVote joins diverse coalition of democracy activists in defense of Voting Rights Act

Thanks to FairVote’s website for the information. They had a recent article by Mollie Hailey that you should check out if you can. Here is an excerpt:

In order to provide their expertise for the hearings, being held July 17 and July 18, several organizations submitted testimony to the committees. FairVote’s testimony focuses on the importance of establishing voting rules that are intrinsically fair rather than contextually fair; in particular, we propose statutory changes to make it easier for jurisdiction to adopt fair representation voting methods. A number of other voting rights and electoral reform organizations submitted testimony as well. Following are links to testimony that will be updated as we receive additional information:

• NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund

• Asian Americans Advancing Justice and Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (joint)

• Common Cause
  

• National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials
  

• Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights 

• The Brennan Center for Justice

• The Anti-Defamation League

• The American Civil Liberties Union

These organizations outline the ways in which the Voting Rights Act forms an essential protection in defending and expanding the right to vote for voters of color, as well as language minorities. Several groups noted that, without Section 5’s protections, communities of color in formerly covered jurisdictions are vulnerable to discriminatory voting changes, particularly at the local level, that will arise in jurisdictions now emboldened by the Supreme Court’s Shelby County decision. In addition, two of the witnesses this week were law professors Spencer Overton and Justin Levitt. Here are links to their testimony:

• Loyola law professor Justin Levitt

• George Washington University Law School professor Spencer Overton