“This is yet another example of Americans’ sacred access to the ballot box being compromised, yet House Republicans went on a long summer recess without bringing the Voting Rights Act update to the House floor for a vote,” said Jermaine House of the DCCC. “Republicans’ politically motivated push to limit vulnerable communities’ access to voting has been repeatedly laid bare. It is time for Speaker Ryan and House Republicans to stand up to this cynical partisan endeavor and protect the voting rights of elderly, Latino and African American communities.”
New York Times: Critics See Efforts by Counties and Towns to Purge Minority Voters From Rolls
By Michael Wines
July 31, 2016
Key Highlights
[…]Three years ago, the Supreme Court declared the preclearance mandate unconstitutional, saying the blatant discrimination it was meant to prevent was largely a thing of the past. But since the Supreme Court’s 5-to-4 ruling in the voting-rights case, Shelby County v. Holder, critics argue, the blatant efforts to keep minorities from voting have been supplanted by a blizzard of more subtle changes. Most conspicuous have been state efforts like voter ID laws or cutbacks in early voting periods, which critics say disproportionately affect minorities and the poor. Less apparent, but often just as contentious, have been numerous voting changes enacted in counties and towns across the South and elsewhere around the country.
[…] They appear as Republican legislatures and election officials in the South and elsewhere have imposed statewide restrictions on voting that could depress turnout by minorities and other Democrat-leaning groups in a crucial presidential election year. Georgia and North Carolina, two states whose campaigns against so-called voter fraud have been cast by critics as aimed at black voters, could both be contested states in autumn’s presidential election.
[…]The local voting changes have often gone unnoticed and unchallenged. A June survey by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund found that governments in six former preclearance states have closed registration or polling places, making it harder for minorities to vote. Local jurisdictions in six more redrew districts or changed election rules in ways that diluted minorities’ votes.