Virginia is set to become the first southern state with its own voting rights act. Here's what it

Virginia is set to become the first southern state with its own voting rights act. Here’s what it does:


When the federal Voting Rights Act passed in 1965, Virginia was one of nine states that drew special attention due to its history of racist election laws. That burden was lifted in 2013, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided enough time had passed that Virginia and other states could stop following an old rule requiring federal permission for changes that might affect minority voters.

With the future of federal voting protections now in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority, Democrats in the General Assembly have passed their own version of a voting rights act, making Virginia the first state in the South to do so.

The proposed law, now awaiting Gov. Ralph Northam’s signature, creates broad new protections against voter discrimination based on race, color or language. With Republicans in dozens of states looking to restrict voting access after former President Donald Trump’s loss, supporters of the Virginia legislation see it as a decisive move in the other direction.

“For Virginia … to put this in our state law will be one more moment in our history that we can be proud of that helps us atone for those parts of our history that still bring us shame,” Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, said as she presented the bill earlier this year.

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https://www.virginiamercury.com/2021/03/12/virginia-is-set-to-become-the-first-southern-state-with-its-own-voting-rights-act-heres-what-it-does/