What would Voting Rights Act do? With John Lewis’ death, Democrats want it restored

Democrat leaders are calling on a civil rights bill John Lewis co-sponsored to be brought to the Senate floor following the death of the civil rights icon.

The Voting Rights Advancement Act would restore protections of the momentous 1965 Voting Rights Act, which were stripped by the Supreme Court in 2013.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who co-sponsored the advancement act bill, called the 2013 Supreme Court decision “disastrous.” The 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court changed which polling jurisdictions needed federal oversight in elections, according to the Associated Press.

In its wake, nearly a thousand polling places in the U.S. closed, according to Pew. Many of them were in Southern black communities, Pew reported.

“This ruling allowed covered counties full control over their election laws for the first time in 40 years,” according to American Politics Research Journal. Researchers in the journal found increased rates in the number of purged voters following the Supreme Court decision.

The original act passed after a march in Selma, Alabama, which Lewis helped lead in March of 1965. Lewis was among the civil rights leaders of the 1960s and channeled many of those visions during his 33-year tenure in congress.

The advancement act was introduced by U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala) and Leahy “to help address the most egregious forms of recent voter suppression.”

When the advancement act bill was passed by the Democratic-led House of Congress in December, John Lewis announced the tally in a symbolic move, the Associated Press reported.

“I have said this before, and I will say it again. The vote is precious,” Lewis stated last year. “It is almost sacred. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democracy.”

The bill has not been brought to the Republican-led Senate.

Sewell stated when introducing the act that it would help “protect and advance the legacy of those brave foot solders of the civil rights movement by restoring key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and empowering the Justice Department to stop voter suppression tactics before they go into place.”

Lewis called the 2016 election a “wakeup call” after voters across the country were suppressed.

“People who had voted for decades were turned away from the polls. What happened? It was the first election in over 50 years without the protection of the Voting Rights Act,” Lewis said in the introduction of the advancement act. “We must repair what the Supreme Court damaged. We must pass this bill to ensure that every American has equal freedom to participate in our democracy.”

Democrats push for action

Leahy tweeted Sunday he will be reintroducing the Voting Rights Advancement Act this week. He will be naming it in honor of Lewis, he said.

California Sen. Kamala Harris called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to “immediately” bring the act to the Senate floor for a vote.

James Clyburn (D-S.C.) echoed some of those thoughts while speaking on CNN’s “The State of the Union” Sunday.

“I think that (Donald) Trump and the senate leadership, Mitch McConnell, if they truly celebrate the heroism of John Lewis, then let’s go to work and pass the Voting Rights Act,” Clyburn tweeted.

U.S. Rep Karen Pass (D-Calif.) said on ABC’s “This Week” one of the best ways to honor Lewis is by passing the Voting Rights Act.

There has not been any momentum among Senate Republicans regarding the act. Last week, a few days before Lewis’ death, McConnell told the Wall Street Journal, “There’s very little tangible evidence of this whole voter-suppression nonsense that the Democrats are promoting.”

This story was originally published July 20, 2020 at 11:45 AM with the headline "What would Voting Rights Act do? With John Lewis’ death, Democrats want it restored."