What Did Jeb Bush Mean in His Comments About Not “Reauthorizing” the Voting Rights Act?

It is hard to know exactly what to make of Jeb Bush’s comments.

According to this video from an Q and A with Jeb Bush, the exchange went like this (my transcription):

Questioner: Where do you stand on the Voting Right Act? Do you believe it should be reauthorized? If not, why not?

Bush: “Reauthorized” you said?

Questioner: Yes.

Bush: I think that …. if it it is reauthorize it to continue to provide regulations on top of states as though we are living in 1960, because those are basically when many of these rules were put in place, I don’t think we should do that. There’s been dramatic improvement in … access to voting, I mean exponentially better improvement.  And I don’t think there’s a role for the federal government to play in most places—there could be some—but in most places, where they did have a constructive role to play in the 1960s. So I don’t support reauthorizing it as is.

I think the fairest reading of these comments is that he is opposed to something like the Voting Rights Amendments Act, which would restore Section 5 Voting Rights Act preclearance in some form which the Supreme Court gutted in the Shelby County v. Holder case. That’s not precisely “reauthorization”–the act was reauthorized in 2006, but then struck down in part in Shelby County. But this is how I think Bush took the question.

It is possible to read the comment more broadly to reject other provisions of the VRA as well, including Section 2, which provides national voting rights protection, does not expire, and was not at issue in Shelby County. If that’s what Bush meant, that’s a major statement and potentially a big change in position by a major Republican presidential candidate. I’m sure someone will follow up and ask Bush’s team if that’s what he meant, and my guess is they will say that’s not what he meant.

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