Protect Voter Rights by Passing the Voting Rights Act

PROTECT VOTER RIGHTS BY PASSING THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, the genesis of the Voting Rights Act lies in that period of American history just after the Civil War when various creative devices were put in place to prevent and dilute the impact of black voters and votes.

The 1965 act did away with many of those devices, many of which were used in my home State, devices such as full-slate voting, where in order for your vote to count, you had to vote for your choice once and against that choice for as many times as there were vacancies on the ballot, numbered posts which set up racially polarized voting, at-large voting which diluted the impact of black votes. All of these creative devices were gotten rid of with the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

But, Mr. Speaker, I used to teach history, and I always told my students that if a thing has happened before, it can happen again. And I do know that if we do not have the protection of the Voting Rights Act, we can see our States revisiting many of those creative devices.

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