Voting Rights Under Fire

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, at least 19 states passed 34 laws restricting access to voting between January 1 and December 7, 2021. Much like the Jim Crow laws of the 1960s, modern voter suppression laws tend to target racial and ethnic minorities by targeting the economically underprivileged. For example, voter suppression laws recently passed in Texas ban election agencies from encouraging absentee voting, limits the use of drop-boxes, and limits the extent to which third parties can assist voters by providing translation or information on how to vote.

Protecting the right to vote

In response to the recent wave of voter suppression laws at the state level, members of Congress have introduced two bills that would prevent states from writing minority voters out of political life: the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Amendment Act. These pieces of legislation would ensure that state and local voting laws meet national civil rights standards—an accountability mechanism first passed via the Voting Rights Act of 1965 but significantly weakened by a Supreme Court decision in 2013.