Neil Weare and Erika Wood have this oped on Tompaine.com. It begins: “By all accounts, the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act was a success. But while the Act has helped ensure that more and more Americans are able to vote, the unfortunate truth is that over 8 million Americans of voting age living in United States territories, Washington, D.C., or convicted of certain crimes, remain legally disenfranchised. This disenfranchisement is especially troublesome because almost 6 million of those who can’t vote–more than 70 percent of the total–are racial and ethnic minorities. Unbeknownst to most Americans, this has resulted in over 1 in 10 minorities of voting age being blocked from enjoying the same voting rights as their fellow citizens.”