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Tuesday 2 april 2024

States move to shore up voting rights protections after courts

erode federal safeguards

By STEVE KARNOWSKI Democratic-led states false claims that vote fraud
Associated Press have been taking matters cost him the 2020 election.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — An into their own hands be- Legislators in Minnesota,
appeals court ruling that cause national legislation Michigan, Maryland, New
weakened a key part of the to expand voting rights Jersey and Florida are pur-
Voting Rights Act is spurring remains stalled in a divid- suing state voting rights
lawmakers in several states ed Congress. Meanwhile, acts, building on ones en-
to enact state-level protec- Republican lawmakers in acted by New York in 2022
tions to plug gaps that the many states have tried to and Connecticut in 2023,
ruling opened in the land- erode safeguards in the as well as ones enacted
mark federal law aimed at name of protecting elec- earlier in Virginia, Oregon,
prohibiting racial discrimi- tion integrity amid former Washington and California.
nation in voting. President Donald Trump's "And we know of interest

Minnesota Senate President Bobby Joe Champion sits at his
desk in his office in the State Capitol complex, March 11, 2024,
in St. Paul, Minn.
Associated Press
from other states that are icy, what you're seeing is,
considering taking up state states really have to say,
VRAs in the next year or so," 'We need to make sure
said Michael Pernick, an at- that ... we have a system
torney for the NAACP Legal that is free from discrimina-
Defense Fund in New York. tion, we need to protect
In Minnesota, Democratic the rights of voters,'" Green-
Rep. Emma Greenman, of man said.
Minneapolis, said she felt The 1965 Voting Rights
an urgent need to act af- Act is seen as a crowning
ter the 8th U.S. Circuit Court achievement of the civil
of Appeals ruled last year in rights movement. But fed-
an Arkansas case that vot- eral courts have "chipped
ers and groups could no away" at it over the de-
longer sue under Section 2 cades, said Lata Nott, an
of the federal Voting Rights attorney with the Cam-
Act — only the U.S. attor- paign Legal Center in
ney general. Washington, D.C., who tes-
Section 2 prohibits voting tified for the Minnesota bill.
practices or procedures The biggest blow to the fed-
that discriminate on the eral law in the view of vot-
basis of race, including ing rights advocates was a
maps that disadvantage 2013 Supreme Court ruling
voters of color. Lawsuits in an Alabama case that
have long been brought stripped the government
under the section to try to of a potent tool to stop vot-
ensure Black voters have ing bias by eliminating the
adequate political repre- requirement that jurisdic-
sentation in places with tions with a history of racial
a long history of racism, discrimination in voting get
including many Southern "preclearance" from the
states. federal government for
The appeals court deci- major changes in the way
sion currently applies only they hold elections.
to the seven states in the Conservatives have ar-
8th Circuit, which stretches gued the requirement
from Minnesota to Arkan- did not account for racial
sas. Legal observers expect progress and other chang-
the case to end up before es in society and that exist-
the U.S. Supreme Court. ing voting rights protections
"As with other areas of pol- are adequate.q