Time for Bipartisanship on Voting Rights

When the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals last week rejected the claims of Arizona and Kansas that their states’ voter registration rules requiring documentary proof of citizenship trumped the federal law’s authority over the federal registration form, Rep. Javier Becerra, Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, captured the sentiments of many of us who care about voting rights:

“In America, the right to vote is a sacred franchise.  Today’s court decision is a clear victory for the right to vote and for the millions of Americans whose franchise was in jeopardy. Yet, we continue to witness attempts in this country to undermine this unalienable right. We must be ever vigilant and work together to ensure that we defeat these dangerous initiatives.

As we approach the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act in 2015, it is time for Congress to do its part to strengthen voting protections for millions of citizens.  Now, before this Congress adjourns, is the time to pass the bipartisan Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2014.”

Congress has passed almost no affirmative voting rights legislation in the past six years. It hasn’t mattered which party was in control of which chamber. In 2013, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which effectively eliminated the requirement of federal preclearance of voting changes in jurisdictions with egregious records of discrimination on the basis of race. This was the one-two punch to the heart of the right to vote: the do-nothing Congress and the activist Supreme Court.

Congress has the opportunity to do something dramatic that addresses both problems by passing the Voting Rights Amendment Act, which substitutes a new formula for the one the Supreme Court rejected to determine which jurisdictions “merit” the preclearance step before their voting changes can go into effect. It is a simple and modest response to the Supreme Court’s explicit invitation to Congress: to enact a new formula based on “current conditions,” rather than the old formula, which has been in effect for decades. (Never mind that Congress amassed 15,000 pages of testimony, including findings of persistent racial discrimination in its latest re-authorization of the Voting Rights Act in 2006.)

The House version of the Voting Rights Amendment Act has 175 co-sponsors, including a number of Republicans. If the fractious House of Representatives can build such a coalition, why can’t the Senate do it? Probably because many Senators have been more concerned about which party would be in the majority after the 2014 election. Well, the election is over. Now would be a perfect time to show the American people that the two parties can get something done, together. And what more fitting subject for a congressional breakthrough after 2014’s contentious election than the fundamental right to vote?

Both houses should take up the Voting Rights Amendment Act immediately when the lame duck session starts next week, and pass it and send it to the President without delay.