In June, the U.S. Supreme Court voided a key part of the Voting Rights Act. A month later, the New York Times framed what happened afterward this way ...
State officials across the South are aggressively moving ahead with new laws requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls after the Supreme Court decision striking down a portion of the Voting Rights Act.
The Republicans who control state legislatures throughout the region say such laws are needed to prevent voter fraud. But such fraud is extremely rare, and Democrats are concerned that the proposed changes will make it harder for many poor voters and members of minorities — who tend to vote Democratic — to cast their ballots in states that once discriminated against black voters with poll taxes and literacy tests. Full article
One Democrat who potentially has a lot to lose from suppressed voter turnout is Hillary Clinton, considered the front-runner for the Democratic nomination -- should she choose to run. In San Francisco to address the American Bar Association Monday, Clinton painted a grim picture on voting rights post-SCOTUS ruling.
"We’ve seen a sweeping effort across our country to (erect) new obstacles to voting, often under cover of addressing a phantom epidemic of election fraud," she said. She called out as especially egregious the Texas voter ID measure and a new North Carolina law, which she called a "greatest hits of voter suppression." (The Justice Department is suing over the Texas law and the League of Women Voters and other groups have filed suit over the North Carolina law.)
You can watch Clinton's address on voting laws here ...