Protecting the right to vote is the most urgent, most endangered and most critical issue that we are facing, because all across this country that most fundamental constitutional right is under assault.
That’s true in my home state of Missouri, where the forces of voter suppression are trying to pass a constitutional amendment to impose a photo ID requirement that could disenfranchise over 225,000 voters, many of whom are black, disabled or among the rural poor.
And just like in Indiana, North Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin and far too many other jurisdictions. That is no accident.
Since the disastrous (and, in my view, wrongly decided) SCOTUS decision in Shelby County vs. Holder in 2013, which severely weakened the Voting Rights Act, jurisdictions at all levels of government who fear the diversity of the new American electorate have been in a misguided race to see how many roadblocks and modern day poll taxes they can put in place to disenfranchise as many citizens of color as possible.
All of that is happening while there is a real danger that our upcoming presidential election could be tampered with by a foreign power.
And yet, Speaker Paul Ryan refuses to stand and protect the integrity of our election system.
Meanwhile, legislation that I am cosponsoring to reauthorize, revise and fully restore the Voting Rights Act is being held hostage in the House Judiciary Committee by the majority. Not because it is objectionable, but because they know that if they let it come out to the floor for a vote it would pass with a clear, bipartisan majority.
So at the federal level, we have to ask the question: Why? And, like most things in politics, it’s all about power and math – and the math never lies.
According to the highly respected Cook Political Report, in 2016 – for the first time in our nation’s history – the percentage of white voters who will make up the total electorate on November 8 is projected to fall to 70 percent.
African Americans are projected to make up 13 percent of all voters, Latinos 11 percent, and Asians American and other ethnicities 6 percent. So people of color are finally voting our weight.
And instead of celebrating that injection of civic energy and full participation in our democracy, some people consider that a dire threat that must be suppressed at all costs.
They just don’t understand that history and demographics don’t care about your politics, or your prejudices, or your obsolete ideas about who should sit at the table of power.
And I have to add that history will not look kindly on those candidates who openly pander to, and eagerly embrace, the vile voices of hatred, division, bigotry and intolerance to further their own political ambitions.
In just a few weeks, we are going to conduct the first presidential election in 50 years without the full protection of the Voting Rights Act. And even though federal courts have struck down clearly discriminatory photo ID laws in Texas and North Carolina, winning those victories took many months and cost millions of dollars.
Those fights, and future court battles, could be easily avoided if Congress would finally do its job to revise, restore, and fully reauthorize the Voting Rights Act.
As someone who has fought voter suppression and intimidation since my very first congressional election in 2000 – when I was forced to go to court on behalf of thousands of my constituents who were disenfranchised by an illegal, inactive voter list in St. Louis – the obvious and best solution would be to establish a uniform VRA pre-clearance mechanism across the country, so that we could ensure the same standard of voter protection for every citizen.
Imagine that: treat every voter the same, protect the integrity of every ballot, and make participating in our democracy easier, not harder. That is a completely American idea.
Adapted from remarks delivered September 16 to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.
U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay (D-St. Louis) represents Missouri’s 1st Congressional District.
