WASHINGTON – Today marks the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), a landmark piece of civil rights legislation that had a key provision gutted two years ago by the Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder. Congress now has before it the Voting Rights Advancement Act, designed to restore and modernize VRA protections, but so far GOP leaders are “slamming the brakes” on such legislation.

“The Voting Rights Act of 1965 got rid of literacy tests and other Jim Crow schemes designed to deny the right to vote to racial minorities,” said Minister Leslie Watson Malachi, director of African American Religious Affairs at People For the American Way. “Today, voting protections are still needed, the threats just look different. Now we have voter ID laws, cuts to early voting, and massive voter roll purges. That Congress has failed to do its job and restore the VRA is a disgraceful display of how little those who are blocking the Advancement Act care about discrimination at the ballot box today.”

“We’ve seen a surge of laws designed to make it harder to vote since the Shelby decision two years ago,” said Michael Keegan, president of People For the American Way. “If Congress doesn’t act, we’ll soon be heading into the first presidential election in half a century without strong federal protections against racial discrimination at the polls. Restoring the VRA shouldn’t be controversial. Congress needs to act now to ensure that every American is able to cast a vote that counts in 2016.”

Today also marks the first Republican presidential debate of the 2016 election cycle. Petition signatures from members and supporters of PFAW, Common Cause, and Bend the Arc were delivered to Fox News yesterday urging the debate questioners to ask the candidates about their position on restoring the Voting Rights Act.

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