The Voting Rights Act of 1965, the landmark civil rights statute that assures an inclusive democracy, is being assailed by far right groups who are stuck in the 18th Century. Millions of people - white, black, Hispanic, Asian and Native American - rejoiced in the breakthrough election of President Obama. It was the shattering of the highest glass political ceiling and his victory, our victory, was in no small part because of the doors that were flung open to all Americans to participate in the electoral process.
The Voting Rights Act's section 5 requires that districts and jurisdictions with a history of voting discrimination submit all proposed changes to the Department of Justice for approval-and it prevents hundreds of acts of voter discrimination in every election cycle.
Our far right opponents are not resting. Their strategy was to find a test case from a tiny, virtually all white municipal district in Texas, to have section 5 - often called the heart of the voting rights act- declared unconstitutional. Their claim is that we don't need the Voting Rights Act anymore because we have successfully elected an African American president.
I ask you, if we don't need the Voting Rights Act anymore then why do we continue to have dialogue and discussion about voter intimidation and suppression? Why are we hearing about voters of color being purged and removed from the registration rolls? Why are we still talking about voters who happen to have a similar name to an incarcerated felon being turned away at the polls? Why are we still seeing states not complying with federally mandated voting law changes like the Help America Vote Act and the National Voter Registration Act? Finally, why are we still seeing racially polarized voting in those states affected by Section 5?
What they fail to examine is the lack of change in voting patterns amongst whites in the states covered by Section 5. President Obama received 47 percent of the white vote in non section 5 states. But in the states covered under the Act, he only received 26 percent. In Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, he garnered an average of about 15 percent of the white vote. Obama did among whites than John Kerry in several of the covered jurisdictions , despite a nationwide Democratic swing. Race seems the best explanation for this difference ...doesn't look like we are post racial yet.
As recently as the 2008 elections, counties covered under section 5 were the scenes of voter intimidation. In Boynton, Florida, people went through African American neighborhoods stating that anyone who has outstanding warrants or owes child support or even has an outstanding traffic ticket would be arrested if they attempted to vote. Police officers were stationed outside of polling places. Officials in Waller County Texas, have tried to prevent students at the historically Black Prairie View A&M University from voting for the past three decades. The county only abandoned this effort to suppress Black turnout when the university chapter of the NAACP brought a Section 5 enforcement action.
In other parts of the country, Section 5 has made sure that Hispanic, Vietnamese and other people of color have had access to a free and fair voting process. It is obvious that voter intimidation still exists and Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act must remain intact.
Dr. Martin Luther King stated that our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. As a nation, we must remain vigilant as the Supreme Court ponders this case. We don't know yet what will emerge from this new configuration of the Supreme Court. We can only hope that they recognize the fundamental value of the basic right to vote for all Americans, unfettered by the barriers of racism. In 2006, we advocated successfully for this provision to be continued and the extension was signed by then-President Bush. Now is the time for the Court to reject this latest threat to realizing our promise of democracy and assure every American can vote.
Benjamin Todd Jealous is President and CEO of the NAACP
