Protecting Minority Voters: Our Work is Not Done

After conducting 25 regional or state-based hearings to gauge the extent of voting rights violations in states and communities, the NCVR compiled Protecting Minority Voters: Our work is not done to share its findings.

The report concludes that voting discrimination is a frequent and ongoing problem.  NCVR faults the Supreme Court for finding the Section 5 preclearance provision of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 to be unconstitutional and an "unnecessary vestige of a bygone era."  Section 5 provided for federal screening of all new voting practices in nine states and in parts of six others, where there had been a history of discrimination.  According to the report, "Section 5 in fact was targeting the states with the worst records of recent, repeated voting discrimination..." The report provides background information on the VRA, along with an analysis of how the VRA has been used to block voting discrimination from 1995 to the present.  There were 171 successful Section 2 lawsuits, 113 Section 5 preclearance denials, and 48 successful lawsuits raising language assistance claims. The report also documents the adverse consequences for minority communities of state laws and practices that restrict or interfere with access to the ballot.

Download it here or view it online.

Get more information from Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.