Don’t Block the Right to Vote A Resolution to Save the Voting Rights Act
WHEREAS: Some of Georgia’s lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives are blocking passage of the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006 (H.R. 9), which would renew expiring provisions of the landmark Voting Rights Act (VRA). They are doing this in order to amend the law to exempt Georgia from key provisions that prevent voter discrimination; and
WHEREAS: Much progress has indeed been made in recent time in minority voting rights and office holding in our state, and in the South, but it has been made in large measure because of the existence of Section 5 and the other provisions of the Voting Rights Act. Had there been no federal intervention in the voting and redistricting process, it is unlikely that most southern states would have ceased their practices of denying and diluting the black vote; and
WHEREAS: Obtaining federal approval of changes to voting procedures is critical because it prevents discrimination before it happens, ensuring that minorities are able to exercise their right to vote. Representative Lynn Westmorland and others would like to see Georgia exempted from Section 5. However, without these protections it is likely that new barriers to voting would wipe out the advances of the past few decades; and
WHEREAS: What our lawmakers have failed to mention is that while we have come a long way since the VRA was first adopted in 1965, discrimination in voting is still persistent in Georgia and the rest of the states covered under these provisions. Since the VRA was last renewed in 1982, Georgia has received 83 objections from the Department of Justice to changes in voting procedures – many within the past five years. This is the fourth highest number in the country. In addition, the Georgia legislature has now twice passed the infamous Georgia photo ID law, which Department of Justice lawyers and a federal judge stated was likely to discriminate against black voters; and
WHEREAS: The VRA is one of the most effective civil rights laws ever passed by Congress. It outlawed literacy tests, language hurdles and other discriminatory barriers that have been used to prevent minorities from voting. In Georgia, as well as the rest of the country, minority voters have gained greater influence in the creation of laws and policies that affect us because of the VRA; and
WHEREAS: The provisions of the VRA that must be renewed include Section 5, which requires jurisdictions with a history of discrimination in voting to get federal approval of any new voting practices or procedures; Section 203, which ensures that American citizens with limited English proficiency get the help they need at the polls; and Sections 6-9, which authorize the attorney general to appoint federal election observers where there is evidence of attempts to intimidate minority voters at the polls; and
WHEREAS: The VRA has been critical to bringing fairness and equality to our electoral system. The right to vote is the foundation upon which our democracy is built, and an essential protection of this right for Americans citizens is the VRA. Equality in voting creates more inclusive communities. It allows us an opportunity to elect representatives who know and share our concerns, allowing us to have a voice in decisions that affect our communities, our families and our places of business; and
WHEREAS: Georgians must raise our collective voices and tell our representatives in Washington to pass the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006 without making changes that would weaken or compromise the effectiveness of the VRA. Unless we join together right now, millions of Americans will find our voices silenced and our freedoms lost. The fact that Section 5 has been so successful is one of the arguments in favor of its extension, not its demise.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials (GABEO) fully and actively supports the Reauthorization of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and strongly urges the United States Congress to pass pending legislation which extends and reauthorizes the Act for another 25 years.
Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials Annual Summer Convention, Savannah State University, Savannah, Georgia, June 24, 2006
Immediate Transmission to all members of the United States Congress and the President of the United States
