Sellers: Congress must act to protect right to vote

Fifty years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, this landmark civil rights law does not offer the same protections it did in 1965. As a native South Carolinian, I am concerned that some of our residents may not get to vote. As president of the League of Women Voters of the Columbia Area, I am disturbed by our steps backward.

Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court gutted key provisions of the law in its Shelby County v. Holder decision. Since then, proposals to restore the law have been introduced in Congress, including a call for a constitutional amendment that would “protect every citizen’s right to vote, once and for all,” but no legislation has passed, and we are seeing more pronounced voter discrimination.

Voter ID laws passed in many states, including South Carolina, have created situations that may cause a reluctance to vote. Requiring voters to produce a photo ID is supposed to prevent voter fraud; however, that would not have prevented most given examples. Justin Levin, professor at the Loyola University Law School and an expert in constitutional law and the law of democracy, studied all levels of elections from 2000 through 2014 and found only 31 incidents of voter fraud out of more than 1 billion ballots cast. In South Carolina, the attorney general had the State Law Enforcement Division investigate more than 900 allegations of deceased voter fraud; SLED found no indication of intentional fraud.

At least one state is making voter registration easier. On Aug. 3, Gov. Kate Brown signed a first-in-the-nation bill to automatically register all eligible Oregonians obtaining or renewing a driver’s license or state ID card. Those not wishing to vote are taken off the rolls.

Each eligible American voter deserves to be treated fairly with equal access to the ballot. Voters need to tell Congress it’s time to restore the Voting Rights Act because the right to vote is fundamental to our democracy. The League of Women Voters believes restoring the law is important in keeping our elections fair, free and accessible.

This story was originally published August 24, 2015 at 7:11 PM with the headline "Sellers: Congress must act to protect right to vote."