WASHINGTON, D.C. – Citing legal attacks to a key provision of the historical Voting Rights Act of 1965, U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder on Wednesday stressed the need to safeguard minority access to the polls.
“In 2012, nearly half a century since the landmark Voting Rights Act was signed into law, our nation’s long struggle to expand the franchise and guarantee the most basic right of American citizenship continues,” Holder said in a speech he gave at the annual meeting of the American Law Institute, or ALI, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that works on legal reform issues.
Holder focused much of his speech on Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
In short, Section 5 requires certain “covered” states to seek permission from the federal court in D.C. or the U.S. Attorney General’s office before they can enforce any changes to their election practices and procedures. This “preclearance” requirement is meant to prevent the states from making changes that would have a discriminatory effect on the basis of race, color or language.
Initially a temporary provision of the Voting Rights Act, Section 5 has been reauthorized several times since 1965, the most recent being in 2006 when it was extended under the George W. Bush administration until 2031.
Holder said preclearance has proved to be a “powerful tool in combating discrimination for decades.”
“Yet, in the six years since its reauthorization, Section 5 has increasingly come under attack by those who believe it’s no longer needed,” Holder said.
