The right to vote is the foundation of our democracy. Yet, today, too many Americans are excluded from the polls.
One in four eligible people are not registered to vote. To help close this gap, the Brennan Center supports automatic voter registration, which lets you register at your DMV or other government agency. It’s a simple way to expand the pool of voters, and is already in place in 19 states.
Before 1965, state governments used a variety of ways to disenfranchise black voters. Some required literacy tests, which white voter registrars often subjectively applied to deny votes to even well-educated blacks. Other requirements included property ownership, age, or citizenship. Many of these laws were overturned by the Fifteenth Amendment, which prevents states from denying voting rights on the basis of race or color.
In 1968, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which requires jurisdictions with a history of discriminatory voting practices to get approval or “preclearance” from either the U.S. Department of Justice or the federal district court in D.C. before making any changes to their elections. This law was extended in 1970, 1975, and 1982, and most recently in 2007, for 25 years.
After the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, a majority of the Court ruled that Section 2’s preclearance requirement no longer makes sense. Since then, a number of formerly covered jurisdictions have introduced new election laws that make it harder for their residents to vote—especially communities of color.