National: Congress Shows No Urgency on Voting Rights Act | Alaska Public Media

In June, the United States Supreme Court struck down a key formula of the Voting Rights Act. Section IV of the 1965 law determined which states needed to get federal approval before changing any voting laws. Alaska was one of nine states subject to that rule known as preclearance. Immediately following the ruling, a frustrated Attorney General Eric Holder condemned the decision. “Existing statutes cannot totally fill the void left by today’s Supreme Court ruling,” Holder said. “And I am hopeful new protections can and will pass in this session of Congress.” Congressional action is highly unlikely anytime soon. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his opinion that voter discrimination still exists. The court did not invalidate the entire act, just the formula determining which states need federal scrutiny. Those states include Alaska, and there have always been those in the states who have thought that was unfair, including Governor Sean Parnell, who ordered the state to join the lawsuit against it.
The Court ruled that Congress could update the formula it uses to determine which states those are. The guidelines had not been updated for decades.
“Right now there’s no appetite,” Congressman Don Young said, explaining there is no real enthusiasm in Congress to tackle the issue now.
He adds the Department of Justice can still enforce the Voting Rights Act if there’s proven discrimination, it just can’t require permission in the nine states previously covered under Section 5.
Alaska does work to ensure Native participation in the electoral process. It provides interpreters to regions in the state with high populations of people who don’t speak English well enough to understand the ballot. Young says in some of those cases, the interpretation services are insufficient.
“Some cases or the elderly, probably not,” Young said. “But it’s hard to find any Alaska Native that doesn’t speak English.”
Congress is on recess until the second week of September. It returns to just nine legislative days before the end of the fiscal year. So the floor calendar – however slim – will be filled with debates on funding the government and raising the nation’s borrowing limit.
Full Article: Congress Shows No Urgency on Voting Rights Act | Alaska Public Media.