Florida minority advocates are calling for a federal constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to vote. It’s their response to this week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
The civil rights group Florida New Majority is joining together with the NAACP and others to demand Congress restore voting protection. Florida New Majority Executive Director Gihan Perera said, discrimination is alive and well in Florida, and the nullified part of the Voting Rights Act was critical in protecting Florida voters during the last election.
“The five counties covered by Section 5 were the only counties in the state where groups like ours could still register voters, uninhibited, by the onerous limitations placed on voting rights,” Perera said.
The Voting Rights Act had required the federal government to pre-approve voting laws in five Florida counties with a history of disenfranchising voters. But the Supreme Court said, the law was outdated.
