Voting Rights Act (VRA)
Today the League of Women Voters of Mississippi, Disability Rights Mississippi, and three Mississippi voters filed a federal lawsuit challenging SB 2358, newly passed legislation that significantly diminishes access to the ballot for Mississippians with disabilities. The plaintiffs are represented by Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Mississippi Center for Justice, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), ACLU-MS and Disability Rights Mississippi (DRMS).
WASHINGTON—Today the League of Women Voters of the United States’ board president Dr. Deborah Turner issued the following statement in response to President Biden’s State of the Union address:
The fight for voting rights is ongoing. One way to fight for a stronger future is to make sure we're up to date on our history.
How well will you do in this quiz about voting rights?
WASHINGTON — Today the League of Women Voters of the United States CEO Virginia Kase Solomón issued the following statement in response to Speaker Nancy Pelosi announcement to step down from House leadership:
August 26, otherwise known as Women's Equality Day, marks the anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment.
Yet today, fewer rights than they'd had in decades. In August 2022, we launched our campaign for Women's Inequality Day, uniting to demand that lawmakers restore and protect our rights.
The Voting Rights Act was originally passed in 1965 as one of the chief legislative accomplishments of the civil rights movement. Since then, it has safeguarded the right to vote, guarding against discriminatory voting practices such as literacy tests and racial gerrymandering.
But the VRA is on shaky footing in 2022, facing opposition both in Congress and at the Supreme Court.
The pro-voter Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006 moved quickly through Congress with strong bipartisan support. The speed of passage showed our country’s bipartisan support of voting rights, support which has dwindled in recent years -- as seen with the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
On March 7, 1965, hundreds of civil rights protestors attempted to march the 50 miles between Selma and Montgomery, Alabama to protest the suppression of Black votes. In this blog, we honor the work of the women who participated in this historic act.
The League joined LCCHR and over 50 groups on a letter to Majority Leader Schumer which urged him to remain focused on the core issue of racial discrimination in voting.
Over the past year, LWV has joined countless nonprofits in spreading knowledge and civic tools through the wildly popular video app, TikTok. We’ve compiled a few favorites.