• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Independent Voter News
  • Campaign Finance
  • Civic Ed
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Events
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Voting>
  3. voting rights act>

N.Y. shouldn't wait for Congress —  it can pass its own voting rights law

William Fowler
August 13, 2020
John Lewis, Voting Rights Act

New York should honor the late John Lewis by passing voting rights legislation in his memory, writes William Fowler.

Rick Diamond/Getty Images

Fowler is on the communications staff of the New York City Campaign Finance Board, but the views here are his own.


"Democracy is not a state. It is an act," John Lewis declared in his final address to the nation, published last month on the day of his funeral. "The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it."

Last week marked 55 years since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. Yet millions of Americans, including many New Yorkers, have still effectively lost their right to vote because of changes to local voting laws and administrative practices that disenfranchise people and are not subject to any state or federal oversight.

This is one important way that New Yorkers can honor the legacy of Lewis, the icon of the civil rights movement who went on to represent Atlanta in Congress for 34 years: Press their lawmakers in Albany to pass legislation reinstating a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, invalidated by the Supreme Court in 2013, that protected voters from many of these types of discriminatory actions.

The provision, known as "preclearance," required states and parts of states with a history of suppressing minority voting rights to obtain permission from the Justice Department or a federal court before changing anything to do with how their elections were administered. The court ruled the law's formula for deciding which places were subject to preclearance was out of date and did not account for voting rights improvements in some places.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

That rationale, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in her dissent, was akin to "throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet." Discarding your protection against a persistent problem, in other words, will assure that problem's return.

And, to Ginsburg's point, voter suppression is raining down across the country, including New York.

Twenty-five states have introduced hundreds of measures that make it more difficult to vote in the past decade, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Examples include stricter voter ID laws, the purging of voter rolls, the closing of poll places and new challenges to eligibility.

"We may no longer have to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar in order to cast a ballot," former President Barack Obama remarked in eulogizing Lewis at his funeral. "But even as we sit here, there are those in power who are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting — by closing polling locations, and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws, and attacking our voting rights with surgical precision, even undermining the Postal Service in the run-up to an election that is going to be dependent on mailed-in ballots so people don't get sick."

While New York does not have a voter ID law, thousands of New York City voters saw their names purged from the voter rolls without notice in 2016, had their polling places changed without notice in 2017, and watched last year as a limited rollout of early voting poll sites was found to favor affluent white voters. As recently as this year's primary, in June, one in five voters in New York's 12th Congressional District had their ballots invalidated over postmarking issues out of the voters' control.

These are all issues that may have been prevented had there been preemptive oversight measures in place.

Nationally, lawmakers and advocates are calling for an overhaul of the Voting Rights Act. The House last year passed legislation, and has recently decided to name it after Lewis, that would create a new way to determine what places have violated minority voting rights so extensively that all their election laws should require federal approval.

States also have a role to play in protecting against voter suppression and increasing the pressure for this federal legislation, and New York should do its part. One path is to pass the legislation sponsored by state Rep. Latrice Walker and renamed the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York by a fellow Democrat from Brooklyn, state Sen. Zellnor Myrie. The bill would establish preclearance by requiring localities to seek approval from the state attorney general before changing any voting procedures.

"Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble," John Lewis famously and frequently said. We now have an opportunity to make some good trouble of our own, by calling on state legislators to pass this legislation and provide more oversight of New York elections and prevent voter suppression.

From Your Site Articles
  • Revival of Voting Rights Act takes first step in Congress - The Fulcrum ›
  • Every state should enact its own voting rights law - The Fulcrum ›
  • 11 states that would be impacted by a new Voting Rights Act - The ... ›
  • Five stories to read about voting rights - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • on martin luther king weekend, senator zellnor y. myrie introduces ... ›
  • The Law That Just Passed In New York Is A Huge Win For Voting ... ›
  • Voting Rights Restoration Efforts in New York | Brennan Center for ... ›
voting rights act

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Confirm that you are not a bot.
×
Follow

Support Democracy Journalism; Join The Fulcrum

The Fulcrum daily platform is where insiders and outsiders to politics are informed, meet, talk, and act to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives. Now more than ever our democracy needs a trustworthy outlet

Contribute
Contributors

Our shared humanity and collective responsibility

Jenn Hoos Rothberg

The conservative mind at 70

Michael Lucchese

Fulcrum Rewind: How to get along at Thanksgiving

Debilyn Molineaux
David L. Nevins

How reforming felony murder laws can reduce juvenile justice harms

Margaret Mikulski

What if neither party can govern?

John Opdycke

The case for the 4th, from a part-time American

Flora Roy
latest News

Are state governments ready for today’s unique challenges?

Kevin Frazier
01 December

2024 caucus-primary and general elections controlled by extremists

Steve Corbin
01 December

A crisis creates clarity for donors

Jack Miller
01 December

Generative AI and its rapid incorporation into advertising

Madelyn Sanfilippo
01 December

Don’t soundproof your heart

Tim Shriver
30 November

A new case for electoral reform

Reinhold Ernst
30 November
Videos
Who is the new House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson?

Who is the new House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson?

Our Staff
Video: Jordan bully tactics backfire, provoke threats and harassment of fellow Republicans

Video: Jordan bully tactics backfire, provoke threats and harassment of fellow Republicans

Our Staff
Video Rewind: Reflection on Indigenous Peoples' Day with Rev. F. Willis Johnson

Video Rewind: Reflection on Indigenous Peoples' Day with Rev. F. Willis Johnson

Our Staff
Video: The power of young voices

Video: The power of young voices

Our Staff
Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Our Staff
Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Dr. F Willis Johnson in rich conversation with Steve Lawler

Lennon Wesley III
29 November

Podcast: Dr. F. Willis Johnson in a rich conversation with Patrick McNeal

Our Staff
14 November

Podcast: Better choices, better elections

Our Staff
23 October

Podcast: Are state legislators really accountable to their voters?

Our Staff
06 October
Recommended
Are state governments ready for today’s unique challenges?

Are state governments ready for today’s unique challenges?

State
2024 caucus-primary and general elections controlled by extremists

2024 caucus-primary and general elections controlled by extremists

Elections
A crisis creates clarity for donors

A crisis creates clarity for donors

Big Picture
Generative AI and its rapid incorporation into advertising

Generative AI and its rapid incorporation into advertising

Technology
Don’t soundproof your heart

Don’t soundproof your heart

Big Picture
Our shared humanity and collective responsibility

Our shared humanity and collective responsibility

Big Picture