Letter to Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, Charles Schumer, Senate Majority Leader, Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader, and Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader - Manchin, Murkowski Call for Bipartisan Reauthorization of Voting Rights Act
Letter
Dear Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, Leader McCarthy, and Leader McConnell:
When President Lyndon B. Johnson transmitted a draft of the Voting Rights Act to the House of
Representatives, he asserted that it would "help rid the Nation of racial discrimination in every
aspect of the electoral process and thereby insure the right of all to vote." As we look back on
that quote today, 56 years later, we reflect not just on the positive impact this legislation has had
on individual Americans' ability to exercise their most fundamental right -- the right to vote --
and the strength of our democracy writ large, but on the important work still have to do to realize
that promise of ensuring the right of all to vote.
Since enactment, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been reauthorized and amended five times
with large, bipartisan majorities. Most recently, The Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta
Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006 passed the United
States Senate 98-0 without a single dissenting vote. Protecting Americans' access to democracy
has not been a partisan issue for the past 56 years, and we must not allow it to become one now.
As you know, in 2013, the Supreme Court ruled in Shelby v. Holder that Section 4 of the Voting
Rights Act, which determines which states and localities must get pre-clearance from the
Department of Justice or the court before they make changes to their voting laws, was
unconstitutional because it was based on an outdated formula. This decision effectively gutted
one of the federal government's most effective tools to preserve confidence in our nation's
elections, and we are seeing the results manifest themselves in state legislatures across the
country.
Inaction is not an option. Congress must come together -- just as we have done time and again --
to reaffirm our longstanding bipartisan commitment to free, accessible, and secure elections for
all. We urge you to join us in calling for the bipartisan reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act
through regular order. We can do this. We must do this.
Sincerely,
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