Page 28 - Preclearance News Today

General loretta lynch who served under president obama. general, its great to have you on. just an honor, generally, but there you saw it. amazingly, these republicans pop up out of the grass and say, we do it to screw the african-american voter, help our side. >> yes. >> they just say it. >> yes, its nothing new. thats the thing. im glad you started with the 15th amendment because this is an historical issue. its a current issue. excuse me. and just, its only history because it happened to some...

Win elections not by getting the most votes but by making it hard for voters to vote. it does have a big racial impact. if youre african-american, youre six times as likely to have to wait an hour or more to vote than if youre white in this country. thats really the poll tax of the 21st century. >> naive question number two. dont we have a justice department for exactly this? but is even that machinery at doj gummed up by partisan politics? >> well, i think theres two answers there, brian. first...

The great senator rand paul says elections should be decided by competing in the marketplace of ideas rather than reduce or restrict who gets to participate in the discussions. this goes back to 2013, if you consider the great movements of our time, a lot of that culminated in 1965 with the voting rights act signed by lyndon baines johnson. it realtied a preclearance, if you want to reduce polling hours, then you have to preclear those different changes with the department of justice. 2013 shelb...

Dont we have a justice department for exactly this but is even that machinery at d.o.j. gummed up bipartisan politics? >> well, i think there is two answers there. first of all, from 1965 to 2013, changes in voting rules in states that had a history of discrimination had to first go to the justice department to be approved before the changes like what were seeing in georgia could be implemented. in 2013 the supreme court in a 5-4 vote got rid of the system called preclearance and now state and l...

Not by getting most votes but by making it hard for voters to vote. and it does have a big racial impact. if youre african american, youre six times as likely to have to wait an hour or more to vote than if youre white in this country. thats the poll tax of the 21st century. >> naive question number two, dont we have a justice department for exactly this but gummed cup by partisan politics? >> well, i think there is two answers there. first of all, from 1965 to 2013, changes in voting rules in s...

County give me a little bit of encouragement. the big picture, were going to have to continue to negotiate with waller county, with the county judge to get them to reverse their decision. one thing you didnt note, rachel is they just announced this decision two weeks before the close of voter registration. so on september 26th is when they announced at a meeting that they were going to change the way they perceived the voting status of the students. and so really, its this very late change to th...

Where they are being asked to fill out additional papers which will lengthen the wait for voting and discourage students from voting. im thankful i can use my campaign to highlight this. there are so many women of color fighting for voting rights and we can shine a light on whats happening in waller county gives me a little bit of encouragement. i think big picture, were going to have to continue to negotiate with waller county, with the county judge, to get them to reverse their decision. one...

A precedent. i understand the point youre making about -- >> because you do know that since then, both north carolina was found to have targeted minority votes with, quote, surgical precision, which is pretty rough phrase. and texas got after it so frequently that a federal court finally said, look, we think theres a penchant for discrimination here. so if you have got the five judges saying that its over in these states and then it turns out it really isnt over, that theres actually still surgi...

Decisis, and one of the things you could look at, one of the factors you could look at, how wrong was the decision, and if its based on an erroneous factual premise, that is clearly one of the factors you would -- >> you would look at -- >> mistake of history. sometimes there have been cases where there have been mistakes of history in decisions, mistakes of fact. >> quickly, the two examples that come ready to mind, one is shelby county. in which the court said in looking at whether there was s...

Both north carolina was found to have targeted minority votes with "surgical precision," pretty rough phrase, and texas got after it so frequently federal court said look, we think there is pension for discrimination here. so if you have got the five judges saying it is over in the states and it turns out it really isnt over, there is actually still surgical precision targeting of minority voters and pension for discrimination in the texas state government, that ought to be something that might ...