OneWorld.net (U.S.)

NEW YORK, Oct 25 (OneWorld) - Leading civil rights groups in the United States are urging legislators not to make any retrogressive changes in the law that protects minorities' right to vote and prohibits discriminatory practices in the electoral process. Their call comes amid a series of hearings being held by the U.S. Congress this week on the future of the historic Voting Rights Act that is due to expire a year before the next presidential election takes place in 2008. Codified by legislators following nationwide demonstrations organized by the country's civil rights movement and signed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965, the law has enabled millions of Blacks and other minorities to exercise their right to vote. "Re-authorization of this Act is critical," says Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Council on Civil Rights (LCCR). "In making our democracy work, it is important that we do every thing we can to ensure that every citizen's right to vote is protected." Although the United States Constitution guarantees people of all races the right to vote, minorities can lose protections against discrimination if the Voting Right Act is not fully re-enacted by Congress, rights groups say. Provisions of the 1965 law that forbid literacy tests and other obstacles for minorities will remain in tact beyond 2007, but others will expire if Congress does not take any action. Currently, one of such provisions requires states with a history of racial discrimination--mostly in the South--to get federal approval before changing their election laws. Another mandates official assistance for voters who do not speak English. Rights groups say there are not clear indications of Congressional intentions to introduce retrogressive changes in the voting rights law, but they find some recent moves by the courts and the Bush administration worrisome. Recently, the Supreme Court and U.S. Justice Department have interpreted certain aspects of the 1965 Law in a way that many civil rights lawyers believe undermines the original intent of its authors. In 2003, for example, in deciding the case of Georgia v. Ashcroft, the Supreme Court seemed to suggest that states can change their district lines if Black voters are still able to influence an election, regardless of whether their preferred candidates are elected. Civil Rights activists who are participating in the hearings say they would like the Congress to clarify that as part of the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. "We are anticipating a challenge to what Congress might do," says Laughlin McDonald, a voting rights lawyers working for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), one of the country's most influential civil rights groups. The ACLU wants Congress to reauthorize the Act fully for another 25 years without using the bill as a tool for a new legislation governing voting machines. Noting that in the past 40 years millions of minority voters have been able to exercise their right to vote, the group estimates that more than 9,100 blacks now hold elected offices at all levels of government. According to the ACLU, they were only 300 in 1964 when there was no Voting Rights Act in existence. In addition to Blacks, currently there are more than 6,000 Latinos who hold elected offices at all levels, according to the civil rights group that remains at the forefront of legal struggle against various forms of discrimination. Recent lawsuits in South Dakota, Georgia, and elsewhere, according to the ACLU, demonstrate that voting discrimination occurs, a view held by many other groups, as well. "For the past 40 years, the law on voting rights has worked well to enfranchise the disenfranchised," the Leadership Council's Henderson notes. "But the threats to minority voters and efforts to discourage minority voters continue." During the 2004 presidential elections, many minority voters had complained about discrimination as they faced of shortage of voting machines, confusion of provisional ballots, and unusually long lines at the polling stations. The U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division investigated such cases, but said it found no evidence of discrimination. The Congressional committee has invited some voting rights activists to participate in the hearing, but it's not clear whether it would allow testimonies related to alleged irregularities in Ohio, the state that formed the margin of George W. Bush's second presidential election victory. Despite their skepticism, activists say they are hopeful that Congress will move towards protecting minorities against discrimination in voting procedures. "In coming months, we trust that lawmakers will take steps to preserve this historic legislation, so that it will continue to protect this fundamental aspect of our freedom," said LaShawn Warren, an ACLU legislative counsel. The next Congressional hearing is scheduled for Thursday.