Jan. 6 reforms give Democrats another chance to protect voting rights

Republican legislators are carving up Southern voting maps without federal oversight for the first time since the Civil Rights era, but Congress could put a stop to it.

The U.S. Supreme Court nullified key portions of the Voting Rights Act in a 2013 ruling that allows GOP-dominated legislatures to rig state and congressional voting districts in their favor without first seeking approval from the U.S. Department of Justice or the U.S. District Court of Washington, D.C., effectively writing racial discrimination back into election laws, wrote columnist Roger House for The Daily Beast.

"It’s hard to believe we’re doing this again, but nearly six decades after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, Black voters still must advocate for districts that represent their interests," wrote House, an associate professor of American studies at Emerson College. "As in the past, the usual arenas of appeal are state and federal courts, local and state legislatures, mayors and governors. By December 2021, about 28 lawsuits were filed in objection to new congressional maps on the grounds of race discrimination."

It didn't have to be that way, and House said there's still a chance to undo the damage.

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"Congress had an opportunity to address the denial of the vote and representation in January by passing the 'Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act,' a merging of two Democrat-sponsored voting rights bills, the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Act," House wrote. "But the bill died on the Senate floor. Had it passed, the law would have established new protections against racial discrimination in voting and election administration. The John Lewis Act alone would have rekindled provisions in the VRA weakened by the Supreme Court."

Another prospective bill known as the “Electoral Count Act,” which offers reforms intended to prevent another insurrection, offers another chance for Congress to protect voting rights.

"The ECA may be the last best hope to address the discrimination in voting unleashed by the Supreme Court," House wrote. "Democrats and moderate Republicans must incorporate into any proposed bill the key provisions of the John Lewis Act. It’s time to end the racial chaos in our democratic system."