Next year, the most fundamental right of Americans comes up for legislative review when Congress must decide whether to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  While today we take for granted the right of all U.S. citizens to vote, just over 40 years ago, hundreds marched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to protest the denial of voting rights to African-Americans.  And the most recent evidence suggests that the right to vote is still at risk, and not just in southern states.

Last month, I reviewed a very disturbing 125-page report compiled by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.  The exhaustive scholarly study, which researched the impact of the Voting Rights Act from 1982 – 2004, concluded that there is “A shocking, continuing reality of racial discrimination in voting that is pervasive, and these problems are nationwide.”  Among the findings, three core conclusions are especially troubling. First, U.S. Department of Justice records confirm that documented complaints to federal officials regarding unfair election practices were actually higher from 1982 – 2004, than between 1965 – 1982.  Second, polling places and voting hours in minority neighborhoods were routinely changed shortly before elections.  And finally, election officials were found to have illegally purged voters from registration lists and to have refused to translate election materials for citizens who were not fluent in English.  The report indicates that the real danger to our democratic process is not voter fraud; it is access to the ballot.

St. Louis has often been at the center of voting rights disputes and election controversies.  Recently, I had the honor of exploring these issues with civil rights pioneers Margaret Bush Wilson and Frankie Muse Freeman.  Along with my colleague, Congressman Russ Carnahan, we participated in a town hall event hosted by Court TV and our three local bar associations, as part of the network’s “In Pursuit of Justice” initiative.  Much of our discussion focused on the reauthorization of the voting rights act and the current proposal to require photo IDs for all voters in Missouri.At a time when voting rights are clearly still under assault, this kind of forum plays an especially vital role in the preservation of our democracy because very few Americans understand what is really at risk.

Indeed, just two weeks ago, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments about Texas’ 2003 congressional redistricting map.  Several justices, including, most notably, Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, expressed concern over how particular districts were dismantled and reconfigured.   An investigative story published last week in the Washington Post reported that career legal professionals, who work in the Civil Rights Enforcement Division of the Justice Department, determined that the Texas map, as designed by the indicted former House Majority Leader, Mr. Tom Delay, systematically disenfranchised African American and Hispanic voters.  And yet, the Bush administration political appointees who had the final word at the Department of Justice ignored their own staff and stated that the Texas map did not violate the Voting Rights Act.Meanwhile, in the Missouri legislature, the Republican leadership is pushing a proposal to require all voters to display photo identification.  This law would effectively discriminate against African Americans, Hispanics, the rural poor, senior citizens and the disabled. 

There are currently 170,000 registered voters in Missouri who do not have a driver’s license.  And despite assurances from the Republican leadership, it is simply not credible to promise that these citizens will be provided with quick, easy access to other government-issued photo ID cards.  The real purpose of this legislation is not to combat voter fraud, it is to suppress voter turnout among certain citizens who are unlikely to support Republican candidates.Over the last five years, we have seen the steady erosion of many constitutional protections that we take for granted and, yet most Americans remain unaware of the danger.  Projects like Court TV’s “In Pursuit of Justice,” illuminate what is really at risk and why essential legal safeguards, such as the Voting Rights Act, are still needed today.  Indeed, our right to vote may be among the most important – because it forms the very cornerstone of our democracy.  My hope is that average citizens will demand that their elected representatives, in both Washington, DC and Jefferson City, act to protect the constitutional rights that they are sworn to uphold.