Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 12 March 2009 — Page 15

The Muncie Times • March 12, 2009 • Page 15

The Judge’s Chambers U.S. Supreme Court shouldn’t tamper with still-needed Voting Rights Act

By Judge Greg Mathis A small municipality in Austin, Texas, will soon get its chance to convince the U.S. Supreme Court that parts of the Voting Rights Act are not only unconstitutional, but no longer needed. If the court agrees, a key section of the act, which has been shown to reduce discriminatory voting practices, could be dismantled. While America has come far in the last 40-plus years, voting irregularities still exist and we must urge the Supreme Court to rule in favor of the Voting Rights Act. Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act requires states with a long history of flagrant discriminatory practices to clear any changes they make to the electoral process with the U.S. Justice Department. Nine states, most of them Southern, and several counties, cities and smaller political locales are covered under the act. The small Austin municipality argues that the act is unconstitutional because it infringes onstate's rights and overextends federal power. Furthermore, the municipality says the America that elected President Barack Hussein Obama is dramatically different from the America that existed when the act was

passed in 1965, implying that the20country has moved beyond race issues. We must not forget that it has not even been a decade since the 2000 Florida voting scandal, where African Americans and poor people were disenfranchised. Four years later, in Ohio, there was a similar debacle. In both instances, voters lost faith in the system and George W. Bush was vic-

torious. In 2006, before renewing the Voting Rights Act, Congress held 22 hearings and determined there was enough evidence to support extending the law. The Voting Rights Act was passed to counter, and put an end to, state-level practices, such as poll taxes and literacy tests, used to prevent blacks from voting. While those specific barriers may no longer exist, voter discrimina-

Judge Greg Mathis Chairman of the Rainbow PUSH- Excel Board Hand a national member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

tion and intimidation do. We all long for a “post racial” America, but those of us who have been burned too many times are cautious. Let's wait another decade and

continue to monitor voting practices before we begin dismantling the act. America may have changed but she is far from perfect.

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