Common Cause Lauds Passage of Voting Rights Advancement Act, Urges Senate to Follow Suit

Statement of Sylvia Albert, Common Cause Director of Voting & Elections

Our democracy can only be fulfilled when all eligible Americans have their votes counted and voices heard, and we commend the House of Representatives for passing the Voting Rights Advancement Act (HR 4) today to help stop voter suppression. Since the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision in Shelby County v. Holder gutted the Voting Rights Act, Americans have been systematically stripped of their ability to vote in numbers not seen since the Jim Crow era. Instead of poll taxes and literacy tests, modern day vote suppressors use poll closures, voter purges, and other devious tactics to silence Americans. The Voting Rights Advancement Act will help curb those abuses and hold states and municipalities accountable when they abuse the system to determine who is able to cast a ballot and who is not. To Majority Leader McConnell, we ask: why are you afraid of all Americans having their full right to vote?”