Congressman Horsford Introduces Voting Rights Advancement Act

Washington, D.C. – On Tuesday, Congressman Steven Horsford (NV-04) joined House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA-12), Congresswoman Terri Sewell (AL-07), and more than 200 members of the House of Representatives in introducing the Voting Rights Advancement Act (VRAA), legislation that seeks to restore the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 by developing a process to determine jurisdictions that have a recent history of voting rights violations.

"I'm cosponsoring the Voting Rights Advancement Act (VRAA) because I believe that the right to vote is one of the most fundamental rights in our democracy," said Congressman Horsford. "As state after state creates new barriers to the polls, our work to prevent discrimination and protect the rights of all voters has taken on a new urgency. The time to restore the vote is now. I urge my colleagues to recommit ourselves to restoring the promise of voter equality."

The VRAA seeks to restore the full protections to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by reinstating the legislative enforcement arm. Specifically, the bill will take into account the Shelby County v. Holder ruling and update the VRA pre-clearance provision to focus on states with a recent history of discrimination.

There are three ways to become a covered jurisdiction:

• States with a history of 15 or more violation at any level in the previous 25 years.
• States with a history of 10 or more violation, if one violation occurs at the state level in the previous 25 years.
• Subdivisions with 3 or more violations in the subdivision in the previous 25 years.

The VRAA addresses a wave of voter ID laws, racial gerrymandering, and other voter suppression tactics enacted at the state level and restores preclearance enforcement of jurisdictions that have had repeated voting rights violations within the last 25 years.

###