Tomorrow night, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will hold a timely speech to address voting rights at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum in Austin. He will “discuss the importance of ensuring equal access to the ballot box and strengthening America’s long tradition of expanding the franchise.”
“Holder’s speech could not come at a more critical time,” wrote Ari Berman at the Nation. “Over the last year we’ve witnessed an unprecedented GOP war on voting, with a dozen Republican governors and state legislators passing laws to restrict voter registration drives, require birth certificates to register to vote, curtail early voting, mandate government-issued photo IDs to cast a ballot and disenfranchise ex-felons who’ve served their time.”
“This assault on voters is one of the greatest self-inflicted threats to our democracy in our lifetimes,” said Elizabeth MacNamara, president of the League of Women Voters, in a press release. “These new laws threaten to silence the voices of those least heard and rarely listened to in this country – the poor, the elderly, racial and ethnic minorities, the young and person’s with disabilities.”
The Justice Department has the authority to oppose discriminatory election laws under the Voting Rights Act, says Berman. “DOJ has sent pointed questions to states like Texas and South Carolina about their new laws, but we still don’t know how aggressively they will enforce the existing laws on the books. Perhaps Holder’s speech tomorrow will shed some light.”