To: Rep. Wm. Clay (MO-1)
Fix the Voting Rights Act!
The Voting Rights Act is dead without further action by our elected representatives in Congress. We, the constituents of Rep. William Lacy Clay, Jr., call on him to speak up on our behalf to do what the Supreme Court intended: fix it!
From The Nation's blog¹, "In the Shelby County v. Holder ruling on June 25, 2013, the Court’s conservative majority struck down Section 4 of the VRA, the formula that compelled specific states with a well-documented history of voting discrimination to clear their voting changes with the federal government under Section 5 of the VRA. The two provisions were always meant to work together; without Section 4, Section 5 became a zombie, applying to zero states."
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¹http://www.thenation.com/blog/177962/members-congress-introduce-new-fix-voting-rights-act
From The Nation's blog¹, "In the Shelby County v. Holder ruling on June 25, 2013, the Court’s conservative majority struck down Section 4 of the VRA, the formula that compelled specific states with a well-documented history of voting discrimination to clear their voting changes with the federal government under Section 5 of the VRA. The two provisions were always meant to work together; without Section 4, Section 5 became a zombie, applying to zero states."
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¹http://www.thenation.com/blog/177962/members-congress-introduce-new-fix-voting-rights-act
Why is this important?
I have witnessed discrimination... while I lived in Akron, Ohio, when the Kent State fiasco occurred during the 60's, while attending school in Appalachian Kentucky during the 70's, while attending Purdue University in Indiana during the 80's, while living in Hawai`i in the 90's... and, yes, while currently living in St. Louis, Missouri. The Supreme Court Justices may think that voting rights abuses are a thing of the past... and I wish that I could be immune from experiencing and witnessing it, too. But, I can't. I don't live in their ivory towers. And, neither do you. I want to see a fairer America. Whether the state legislators thought they'd curtail minority voters with the poll tax (which the VRA directly addressed), or whether those legislators think that photo IDs will do so... our federal government must assure that they are not able to intimidate and deny voting rights to ANY American -- regardless of race, class, or any other variation of American citizen.