The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is widely hailed as the crown jewel of the civil rights movement, the most effective civil rights statute in history. It would be hard to overstate the importance of the Act in American political life. Its impact on the political culture of the South was immediate and decisive, a culture that had grown accustomed to under-enforcing the voting rights of its African-American citizenry.
As the U.S. Congress debates whether to reauthorize this historic piece of legislation, I fear that this will be a missed opportunity. One way to think about this debate is to ask whether Congress should reauthorize the Act at all. Put another way: is the Act still necessary?
In order to understand this question, we must be clear on what provisions of the Act are subject to debate. Three particular provisions deserve close scrutiny:
I remain deeply ambivalent about reauthorization. On the one hand, I agree with those who advocate for extension of the Act into the future. As documented by the American Civil Liberty Union’s Voting Rights Project, the University of Michigan Voting Rights Initiative, the National Commission on the Voting Rights Act and reports from many of the states covered under the Act, racial discrimination in voting is alive and well. While the problem is clearly not what it used to be, our political culture has not matured to the point where we can begin to envision life without the special provisions of the Act. Also, reauthorization offers a clear symbol of our strong commitment to voters of color.
On the other hand, I fear that passage of the Act will give us a false sense of complacency, as if all is well with the republic and our voting rights are secure. Reauthorization of the Act makes for great theater — after all, who could be against the Voting Rights Act? In the meantime, myriad problems remain largely unaddressed. One issue is particularly close to my heart, the problem of Latinos and voting. The Act helps in some respects, by affording bilingual ballots in certain qualifying jurisdictions. But this is only a small step. For example, Latinos lag far behind Whites and African-Americans in terms of voter registration, voter eligibility and voter turnout. Also, American citizens residing in the commonwealth of Puerto Rico do not have direct voting representation in Congress or the Electoral College. These are issues that the Act does not address.
