Posts Tagged
‘politics’

On June 30^th a few of the Rock the Vote interns attended a conference in Washington D.C. on voting rights and we wanted to relay the highlights. The New America Foundation joined with fair elections advocates FairVote to organize “The Future of the Voting Rights Act” conference in which some of the nation’s top voting rights experts came together to review the NAMUDNO case (Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District v. Holder) and its impacts, and also to think more comprehensively about voting rights.

The Supreme Court on June 22 upheld a key provision of the Voting Rights Act in the NAMUDNO case. The Court in an 8-1 majority, ruled  that a full and equal right to vote is at the core of our democracy. Although the United States has made significant progress in protecting voting rights, discrimination still requires attention and enforcement. The experts at the conference believed that this ruling should inspire further action to enhance protections of the right to vote, and gave proposals like universal voter registration, proportional voting systems and a constitutional right to vote.

The Constitutional Right to Vote was a major topic of discussion. The panelists believed the right to vote should be the foundation of any democracy. Yet, most Americans do not realize that we do not in fact have a constitutional right to vote. Because there is no right to vote in the U.S. Constitution, individual states set their own electoral policies and procedures in areas such as ballot design, polling hours, voting equipment, voter registration requirements and ex-felon voting rights.

The proposal for adding a Right to Vote Amendment to the U.S Constitution would:

• Guarantee the right of every citizen 18 and over to vote
• Empower Congress to set national minimum electoral standards for all states to follow
• Provide protection against attempts to disenfranchise individual voters
• Ensure that every vote cast is counted correctly

For more information on all things voting rights, head over to Fairvote’s Website: http://www.fairvote.org/

We would like to know what you think about this issue. Should Rock the Vote support the proposed implementation of  a constitutional amendment for the right to vote?