The Voting Rights War: Will democracy survive?
15th March 2021 · 0 Comments
By C.C. Campbell-Rock
Contributing Writer
Despite losing the White House, U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives in the 2020 election cycle, Republicans are determined to win back minority control of the federal government. They are fighting in the courts, on Capitol Hill and in state houses to retain voting policies that dilute the votes of Blacks and other ethnic groups.
The perpetual voting rights war between the Republicans and Democrats last week heated up as U.S. House Democrats passed HR1, the For the People Act of 2021, a 600-page bill that protects voting rights and eliminates many of the voter suppression tactics Republicans use to disenfranchise voters. It also sets up an independent federal redistricting commission that can put an end to partisan gerrymandering.
Two days before the House passed HR1 in a 220-210 vote, on March 2, the Supreme Court of the United States began hearing oral arguments in a consolidated case Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee and Arizona Republican Party which focused on two voting policies that the DNC deemed discriminatory.
Arizona’s Attorney General Mark Brnovich and the Republican National Committee asked the Supreme Court to overturn a ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that agreed with the DNC.
The Democratic Party in 2016 challenged Arizona’s “out-of-precinct” rule that a vote cast in the wrong polling place had to be tossed out, even if it is for president, governor or some other race in which the voter could have cast a ballot anywhere in the state and Arizona’s ban on collecting and turning in mail ballots by anyone other than a voter’s immediate family members or caregivers,” according to a Brennan Center for Justice analysis.
Numerous groups filed amicus briefs in support of the DNC’s. The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCR) filed a brief.
Damon Hewitt, a New Orleans native and the LCCR’s former vice president is the organization’s interim president and executive director. His predecessor, Attorney Kristen Clarke is President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.
Don Owens, the LCCR’s communications director, spoke recently about the fight for voting rights. “The attack (on voting rights) is constant and pervasive. The highest court has to affirm there is no place for racism in our elections.”
Owens said, “Election groups looked at Arizona’s policies and found the rules negatively impacted the Black community. Black people’s ballots were being rejected at a higher rate. It’s a way to disenfranchise Arizona’s small Black and Latino populations,” he explained.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) in partnership with the Arizona Republican Party, and other party committees have been supporting Arizona’s lawsuit. RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel disagrees with the DNC’s assertions that the Arizona laws are discriminatory.
“Democrats are trying to manipulate a key part of the Voting Rights Act, distorting a safeguard against legitimate discrimination. It is critical that all voters have confidence in the integrity and legitimacy of our elections. The Supreme Court should reject Democrats’ attempts to weaponize the Voting Rights Act in the name of partisan politics,” McDaniel said in a statement.
“Arizona’s ban on ballot harvesting prevents bad actors with malicious intent from coercing or changing ballots, and its law requiring voters to vote in the correct precinct allows for the efficient administration of Arizona elections,” McDaniel explained.
Amy Howe, a co-founder of SCOTUSblog, an independent news and analysis blog on the U.S. Supreme Court, wrote an argument analysis of the Court hearing titled, “Majority Appears Poised to Uphold Arizona Voting Rules.”
During the presentation, Lawyer Michael Carvin, representing the Arizona Republican Party shared the real reason the GOP is appealing the Ninth Circuit’s ruling.
According to Howe, Justice Amy Coney Barret asked Carvin “Why is the Arizona Republican Party in this case at all? Why do you care about keeping these laws on the books?”
Carvin responded saying the Ninth Circuit ruling “puts us at a competitive disadvantage relative to Democrats….Politics is a zero-sum game, and every extra vote they get through unlawful interpretations of Section 2 hurts us. It’s the difference between winning an election 50 to 49 and losing 51 to 50.”
More than 25 organizations filed briefs in support of the DNC, including the National Council of American Indians, Navajo Nation, and Mi Familia Vota, and letters of support were submitted by a sizable number of major corporations, businesspeople and election scholars.
The Brennan Center and others are urging the court to enforce and preserve the VRA’s protections. “Now, in the midst of an expanded, nationwide voter suppression push fueled by lies about nonexistent fraud in the 2020 election, those safeguards have taken on even greater importance – and so has this lawsuit.”
Get the details of HRI at www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1 and learn more about Republicans’ Voter Suppression tactics at www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/supreme-court-case-challenging-voting-restrictions-arizona-explained.
This article originally published in the March 8, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
