Changes to the Voting Rights Act in 2013 are now showing their effects and having a significant impact in disenfranchising minorities from this year’s election process.
The presidential primary in Arizona last week where minority voters were required to wait as long as five hours to cast their votes brought the issue into focus, with editorial boards across the country placing the blame squarely on Republicans.
The 2016 presidential election will be the first since the U.S. Supreme Court revised a crucial section of the 1964 Voting Rights Act, allowing 16 states to change their election laws without advance federal approval. Prior to Section 5 of the VRA being revised in 2013, jurisdictions with a long history of discrimination had to submit their voting changes for approval. Arizona was added to the “covered jurisdictions” in the VRA in 1975 for discriminating against Latino and Native American voters.
