Why we need John Lewis Voting Rights Act to become law

If Donald Trump regains the presidency, "you won’t have to vote anymore," he told supporters last month.

Since the Supreme Court ripped the heart out of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, anti-democracy extremists have waged a relentless campaign to keep Americans from voting. These voter suppression tactics not only fall hardest on communities of color, many are intentionally racially discriminatory.

When the Supreme Court struck down the preclearance requirement of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder, the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg famously dissented, "throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet."

Now, we’re getting soaked. States have added about 100 restrictive voting laws since Shelby, and voters in almost half the country will face new voting restrictions in the upcoming general election.

The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would update and reinvigorate the Voting Rights Act of 1965, strengthening legal protections against racially-motivated voter suppression.

In striking down the Act’s preclearance provision, which required jurisdictions with a history of voting discrimination to receive federal approval for changes to voting laws or practices, the Supreme Court said the formula was outdated. The John Lewis Act updates the formula, basing it on recent evidence of discrimination.

Some changes would require preclearance nationwide, such as creating at-large districts or changing jurisdiction boundaries in places with large populations of color, imposing stricter documentation or ID requirements to vote, making it easier to purge voters of color from the rolls, or significantly reducing the opportunity to vote in communities of color.

Other provisions of the John Lewis Act include:

• Making Election Day a public holiday.
• Expanding voter registration, including same-day and automatic registration.
• Expanding early voting and vote-by-mail options.
• Requiring public announcement of voting changes at least 180 days before an election.
• Enabling the federal government to dispatch observers to polling places with a noted pattern of discrimination.
• Expanding restrictions on campaign spending by foreign nationals.
• Banning partisan gerrymandering.
• Make it it a criminal offense to "corruptly hinder, interfere with, or prevent another person from registering to vote or helping someone register to vote."

House lawmakers passed the bill along party lines in 2021, but the Senate filibustered it, marking the fourth time that year that the minority party blocked voting rights reform. Meanwhile, the racial voting gap continues to grow.

If Trump is returned to office and the dystopian agenda outlined in Project 2025 is enacted, voting rights will be even further eviscerated. The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, which is responsible for enforcing civil provisions of the federal laws that protect the right to vote, would be eliminated. The FBI would be prohibited from combating the spread of misinformation and disinformation, which has given rise to election-related violence and harassment of election workers.

Next year marks the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. The question is whether the nation marks this anniversary proudly, with the promises of the Act thriving and fulfilled, or in shame, with those promises lying shattered at our feet.

Marc H. Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League and was mayor of New Orleans from 1994 to 2002. He writes a twice-monthly column for the Sun-Times.

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