Voting Rights

                The Voting Rights Acts (VRA) is not fifty years old.  The VRA “is one of the most successful – and important – laws ever passed by Congress” according to Hans von Spakovsky at The Daily Signal.   “It may be one of the few statutes passed by Congress that has fully achieved its objective:  it has enfranchised millions of black and other Americans who had been wrongly denied their right to vote, and it stopped the widespread, systematic, official discrimination being practiced by state and local governments in the Jim Crow South.

                “What is sad, however, are the scare tactics being used by opponents of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in one case in 2013, Shelby County v. Holder, to assert that `almost all of the protections in the Voting Rights Act’ have been `systematically dismantled’ and that the right to vote has been taken away.

                “Nothing could be farther from the truth, and nothing could be more shameful than the incendiary racial demagoguery being used to push this mistaken idea and to politicize the celebration of the Voting Rights Act.”

                The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5^th Circuit in New Orleans used the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to rule against a Texas voter identification law, SB 14.   The law simply requires voters to present photo identification before casting their ballot.  The judges ruled that the law would have “discriminatory effect.” 

                Those who support the law claim that it protects the “integrity of the democratic process by reducing voter fraud.”  Those who oppose the law claim that “voter identification laws discriminate against low-income and minority voters who may not have easy access to the required documents.”

                Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, is hoping that Texas appeals the ruling.  “The finding of the three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit that the Texas voter ID law violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act because it supposedly could have a discriminatory effect on minority voters ignores the state’s actual experience with voter ID in state and federal elections in 2013 and 2014….  Turnout data shows the voter ID Law did not suppress turnout – there is no evidence that anyone was prevented from voting.  This decision is completely wrong on both the facts and the law – hopefully Texas will appeal and challenge the ruling.”

                As von Spakovsky wrote in the first article quoted, “What we should be concentrating on, instead of imaginary claims of disenfranchisement, is convincing those Americans who don’t vote because they are disappointed with the political process that they need to get involved.  Voting is not just a right; it is a privilege.  And there are many other people around the world who envy the ability of Americans to take advantage of that privilege.”

                It appears that liberals are willing to do anything to keep Democrats in power in our nation – even if it makes them look stupid.  Anyone who does anything – fly on an airplane, enter a federal court building, get a mammogram, visit a doctor, cash a check, sign up for Social Security, etc. – must identify themselves with a picture ID.  Why in the world would they not have a picture ID to identify themselves to vote?

It sounds to me that some people are trying to get votes from illegal sources – dead people, undocumented immigrants, etc.