Page 33 - Preclearance News Today

Requirements. alabama and mississippi enacted voter i.d. laws. florida has cut back early voting days. virginia requires voter i.d. these states joined a tidal wave started in 2010 of mostly republican state legislatures putting restrictions on the vote. thats not to say there hasnt been an effort to plug the dam, bipartisan group of legislators has proposed if they have five voting rights violations in the past 15 years. four states would require preclearance right off the bat. you guessed them...

And as were counties and towns in six more states shown here in a darker yellow. it is it is that crucial part of the voting rights act, that formula that the united states supreme court struck down one year ago. the supreme court ruled the formula had become unconstitutionally outdated and without the foreign -- without a list of jurisdictions that would require preclearance, well, theres no preclearance. but theres a solution. congress can replace the formula. who would have guessed that? near...

Before that decision came out -- >> preclearance. >> absolutely not. to your point about the necessity of preclearance, everyone who saw that trial knew wisconsin had no shot, no evidence of voter fraud and we have hundreds of thousands of people who would be disenfranchised by it. they talked about changing the i.d. law, exactly what places like mississippi were doing between 1961 and 1965. you start to win a lawsuit. and then they change the law and you have to start all over ag n again. thats...

They were in the category. when i talk about the voting rights act it is important to remind people most states are not in that category, it is not a necessary presumption of oversight for everyone. it is looking act the places where the discrimination has occurred. >> yeah, that is absolutely right. one thing that is important to remember, ari, that not, it wasnt that the entire voting rights act was thrown out. i should say yet. it wasnt all thrown out. what the supreme court has done is -- is...

Theyre getting away with it so far. in the courts the question is whether they had a discriminatory intent with the laws. a point gene was alluded to. >> thats right. and especially now, under the voting rights act, in its more weakened form since last summer. its more dif skult to get these laws struck down. one interesting point about, about this. it was enacted. hadnt gone into effect. thats because alabama itself did not try to get the law approved. they knew it was going to have a discrimin...

Comes out to one out of every 15 million perspective voters. that is a lot of zeros. zach, after the decimal point to show how rarely this happens. when you look at alabama. theyre getting away with it so far. in the courts the question is whether they had a discriminatory intent with the laws. a point gene was alluded to. >> thats right. and especially now, under the voting rights act, in its more weakened form since last summer. its more dif skult to get these laws struck down. one interesting...

Rights act unless you could absolutely prove that states discriminated against minority voters on purpose. seeing the impact of laws wasnt enough. anyone who thought they were discriminated against should have to prove it. otherwise society should just trust in the states to do whats best. thats the same reasoning of roberts and the courts conservative and lib barian wing on the voting rights act. racial discrimination is in the past. why have federal protection for minority voters today? here i...

Needs to be not just about the south. so in 1965 the states could be divided into two groups. those with low voting tests and turnout. today the nation is no longer divided along the lines. and that impeerically accurate assessment of the ways in which ohio, pennsylvania was constant. if we go to the point by wade before the break, were going to have to have congress to make a new formula. what does the new formula look like? it gets us a preclearance that makes sense. >> so the new formula look...

Theres been an intentional discrimination. which is hard to prove in these days and age. now it expands the violations that allows the court to say this needs to be subject to preclearance. its flexible, moderate and adaptive. one thing super important to keep in mind is the states covered by preclearance are the states that still have a continuing of problems. zble texas, north carolina. >> right. i think i would disagree with the professor that it was an outdated formula. and i think thisry wi...

Shelby county decision is damaging for the latino community is the greatest growth of the latino population is throughout the south and southeast, the states that no longer have the preclearance. so its not just going to be an issue for african-american voters, its going to be increasingly an issue for the latino community. >> i want to look at sort of the presidents approval ratings by race over time. you see that he starts particularly with african-american and hispanic voters sort of way up. ...