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What the Voting Rights Act Really Does
On Wednesday, we mark 60 years since the Voting Rights Act became law. Here’s what it protects – and what’s at stake.
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When most people hear “Voting Rights Act,” they think about the past – a moment in the civil rights movement, a photo of John Lewis on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
But the Voting Rights Act was more than a response to injustice. It was created to be a system that prevents it from happening again.
And this week, on the 60th anniversary of the law’s passage, it’s worth remembering exactly what the VRA does – and why it still matters.
It gave the federal government real power to stop racist voting laws.
For decades, states like Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi passed laws designed to block Black citizens from voting – things like poll taxes and literacy tests.
The VRA changed that. It said: if your state has a history of discrimination, you can’t make new voting laws or changes that impact elections, like closing polling places or changing district maps, without getting federal approval first.
This protection was called preclearance, and it worked. It blocked a ton of discriminatory laws before they could take effect.
But in 2013, the Supreme Court's decision in Shelby County v. Holder gutted the preclearance system. And in the years since, states have rushed to pass new voter suppression laws – exactly the kind of laws the VRA was designed to stop.
It also lets voters challenge discriminatory laws in court.
Even after preclearance was weakened, Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act allowed voters to sue when their rights were threatened – like when district lines weakened Black voting power or when early voting access was slashed in a way that disproportionately harmed communities of color.
But now, even those protections are under attack.
On Wednesday, we’ll honor 60 years of the Voting Rights Act. But we also have to face the truth: the attacks on this law haven’t stopped – they’ve just changed shape.
More on that tomorrow.
Fair Fight Team
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