When Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia ruled Section 5 “pre-clearance” of the Voting Rights Act should be taken away, the black community went into an uproar and protected the law on grounds that it protects voters from discrimination. In case you didn’t know, the “racial entitlement” law that Scalia speaks of is still on the chopping block, and the right to vote for minorities and poverty stricken areas are still in jeopardy.
DETAILS: Have A Seat! Supreme Court Justice Says Renewing Voting Rights Act Is “Racial Entitlement”
Christina Sanders, the Texas state director for the League of Young Voters, sat down with GlobalGrind’s political editor Christina Coleman and discussed exactly what Section 5 is, its significance, and how to keep the conversation of securing our right to vote going.
Check out what Sanders has to say and how you can be helpful in the fight to renew Section 5 below.
I know that you attended the “Protect the Voting Rights” rally. Can you just give us a little background on what’s happening since you’ve been on the front lines?
Section 5 of the voting rights act could be on the chopping block. It’s in the hands of the Supreme Court in terms of what will happen with the protections that have been created to protect certain voters, particularly voters of color, to ensure that they have access to their right to vote. Section 5 of the voting rights act, which basically states that certain states that propose laws around changing election rules or changing election administration policy, have to get clearance from the Department of Justice in order for those laws to go into effect, because of their history of disenfranchising voters of color.
Getting rid of Section 5 basically makes the voting rights act unviable, right?
It will basically remove the protections that allow people to be able to still vote. It is the most important section of the Voting Rights Act, because it allows a proactive approach to not letting people get disenfranchised.
What other things do states do to disenfranchise voters?
As recent as this last election, we had dozens of young people whose names didn’t even make it into the roll. So they register to vote, but their names don’t make it. Also the creation of poll tax. Poll tax was something historically that was used to push people away from the polls. So you have all these I.D. requirements that are associated with costs. There isn’t clarity or uniformity in terms of what the people’s rights are at the very local level. The equipment still breaks down if you are in early voting. There weren’t additional provisions to be able to offer more machines or more locations in communities where there are predominantly African American and Latino voters. There hasn’t been many to any updates to help to assist and make access to the ballot easier for folks here in Texas.
What are some of the more ridiculous arguments you’ve heard from the other side that support taking away Section 5?
One of the things mentioned, and I can’t explain them because I don’t understand them very well, there was a discussion from Justice Scalia about the Section 5 offering over time an entitlement where it would then begin to engineer preferential treatment to people of color. Which basically means that Section 5 could possibly disenfranchise non-people of color, because it protects people of color.
What are the latest developments? Are they still hearing arguments?
No, there is not a ruling yet. We may hear something close to summer or over summer, early summer. The key point now, or the take-away, is for us to tell everybody. Even if it’s another act of Congress, we’ve got to make sure that we are at the forefront of protecting A, our right to vote, and B, protecting this demographic of young people that are coming up that are new to this process can really be disenfranchised, not just for next year, but for decades, if we don’t get this right, right now.
You and I are spreading the word, but what else can young people do to get involved and get the attention of other young people who need to know about this?
It really is a conversation of how do we move the ball just from voting, just from registering, to really paying attention to what’s going on. We’ve got to know that all politics is local, and you’ve got to look at the state legislature and you’ve got to look at these local administrative offices. This is something that they’ve got to understand, this America is their America.
There is something happening in America. There is a very small window of time that we have to pay really close attention, and it’s going to take a lot of energy, a lot of consistency, and a lot of effort to make sure we get to the next phase. We’ve got to make sure we’re diligent and we continue to fight and be confident that we’re going to win. Wherever our communities are pushing to go, we can go, but we’ve got to make sure we take care of ourselves today.
