Topic: Voting Rights Act of 1965


ClassBrain Visitor:

Dear ClassBrain,
I have searched the web but cannot yet determine if the Voting Rights Act of
1964 (1965, 1970, 1975, 1982) will expire or if efforts are underway to
extend or update the act in any way; all I can find is "Election Reform" and
that does not seem to be the exact same issue. Can you help?


ClassBrain Response:

There has been much concern over whether minorities will lose the right to vote in 2007, but rest assured that this is an impossible outcome. "The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a permanent statute that contains temporary and permanent provisions to protect and strengthen minority citizens' right to vote throughout the United States." Although it was officially passed in 1965, it has been amended in 1970, 1975, and 1982. The 1982 Amendment extended the pre-clearance section for 25 additional years. This would take it until 2007, but this matter is expected to be reviewed by Congress much sooner than that. "But even if Congress doesn't act by that time, or does act but does not reauthorize the pre-clearance requirement, no one will lose the right to vote."

Some of the above text was taken from a really good post made by Congressman Robert C. Scott on an official website of the United States House of Representatives. Click here to visit this page.


I've also taken the liberty of including some other really informative articles on this subject:

United States Department of Justice
Civil Rights Division
Voting Section
(This includes articles such as an Introduction To Federal Voting Rights Laws, Before the Voting Rights Act, The Voting Rights Act of 1965, and The Effect of the Voting Rights Act.)

Backgrounder on The Civil Rights Act

This was taken from Basic Readings in U.S. Democracy.

Hopefully this was the information you were seeking.

Learn more about voting rights with the help of Google