When Congress nearly unanimously reauthorized the Voting Rights Act in 2006, it relied on abundant evidence that there is still pervasive, persistent, even Jim Crow-style voting discrimination in the South and elsewhere — including in Shelby County and other parts of Alabama. Without Section 5’s preclearance requirement, Congress found, “racial and language minority citizens will be deprived of the opportunity to exercise their right to vote, or will have their votes diluted, undermining the significant gains made by minorities in the last 40 years.”
The provision remains an effective and essential check against widespread voting violations. Many jurisdictions still actively sabotage the interests of minority voters, as shown in new efforts to keep these voters from the polls. Discrimination would be even more widespread without the continuing and critical deterrence of the preclearance requirement.