Voting Rights Act 2.0
Modernizing Section IV of the Voting Rights Act
Congress should modernize Section IV (b) of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 to ensure equal participation and protection of minorities against the state board of election abuses and state legislatures throughout the United States. Presently, a lack of voter protections in all 50 states exists. In 2013, the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) invalidated Section IV (b) of the VRA, in turn giving Section V no jurisdiction to preclear voting laws in any states or counties. “By rejecting the VRA’s formula for determining which states and jurisdictions are subject to preclearance of changes to their voting laws, the Court effectively derailed the Act’s preclearance regime for preventing discriminatory voting practices (Binder, 2013).” This can have dire social ramifications on minorities since it currently ensures majorities power to disenfranchise minority votes. Since 1965, instances of voter discrimination have shown up routinely and currently occur with no oversight by the Department of Justice (DOJ) or D.C. District Court.
Since SCOTUS’s 2013 decision, many policy alternatives have been suggested for modernizing Section IV (b). Many ideas within these policies could make for effective public policy for protecting minority-voting rights in the United States. However, a national policy on voting and on the…
