Lawmakers drafted the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to overturn both rulings and spent months compiling a careful legislative report pending any legislative changes to be examined by the judges.
At its core is a new formula for determining which states and local entities should be subject to pre-approval by looking at voting rights violations over the past 25 years. At least one analysis suggests that eight states — Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas — and a handful of counties would be subject to such surveillance.
But it would also require most jurisdictions in the country — not just those with a history of discrimination — to gain federal approval before adopting certain sensitive electoral changes, such as strict new voter identification requirements, removing polling stations, completing the lines. of constituencies or the posting of new policies to clean up voter lists en masse.
Other provisions hidden in the bill could have a meaningful impact on voting disputes. For example, the legislation would lower the bar for plaintiffs who sue to block election changes under the Voting Rights Act to obtain injunctive relief to prevent them from taking effect until a court can review them. Currently, election amendments that are scrapped later can often take effect for months or even years because the lawsuits take so long to be resolved.
Elsewhere, the legislation seems to target many of the Republican state officials who have used unsubstantiated and often vague concerns about voter fraud — particularly former President Donald J. Trump’s false claims — to justify enacting new restrictions on post. in ballots, the use of drop boxes or to cut back on early voting. Merely raising concerns about “voter fraud” isn’t enough, the bill says, implying states would have to provide evidence to back up their claims.
Senators are still negotiating their own version of the legislation and have yet to find a date to reintroduce it or call a vote. Unlike the For the People Act, it will probably get some bipartisan support, but not nearly enough to make it.
Only one Republican, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, has been willing to link her name to similar bills in recent years. A spokeswoman for Ms. Murkowski declined to comment on the House version of the bill, but senators told NewsMadura earlier this year she didn’t believe she could find nine other Republicans to join her in breaking the bill. of the filibuster to pass the bill.
