Of all the words Hillary Clinton has voiced in this turbulent election season, none are more on point and meaningful as her comments regarding the 51st anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
“Fifty-one years after the Voting Rights Act was signed into law, Americans are now facing the most systematic effort to curtail those rights since the era of Jim Crow,” she said in a press statement. She continued, “Make no mistake, new voter restriction laws in 17 states have replaced poll taxes and literacy tests as a thinly veiled attempt to achieve an old objective: disenfranchising African-Americans, Latinos, low-income people, young people and people with disabilities.”
Her warnings come on the heels of several recent developments with voter suppression. As we noted in last week’s editorial, ID laws have been struck down in at least six states.
While those victories are important, Clinton made it clear she refuses to rest on her laurels. “Donald Trump supports discriminatory voting restrictions,” she said, “and actually claims that without them in place, the results of American elections should be questioned. It’s a dangerous attempt to undermine the legitimacy of our democracy.”
Clinton said she had an entirely different perspective. “I believe America is stronger when we expand access to the ballot box, not restrict it,” she said. “That’s why I’ll fight to repair the Voting Rights Act, expand early voting and introduce universal, automatic voter registration.”
What she promises to repair is the Supreme Court’s evisceration of the act’s sections that forbade states, counties and districts with a history of discriminating against minorities to have an easy access to changing the laws, particularly gerrymandering.
She recalled the historic moment when President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law, after the civil rights march in Alabama from Selma to Montgomery. Johnson said, “The right to vote is one which no American, true to our principles, can deny.”
Like Clinton, many Americans feel Johnson was right.