Hillary Clinton on the 51st Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act
Today, on the 51st anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, Hillary Clinton issued the following statement:
“Fifty-one
years after the Voting Rights Act was signed into law, Americans are
now facing the most systematic effort to curtail those rights since the
era of Jim Crow. Make no mistake, new voter restriction laws in
seventeen states have replaced poll taxes and literacy tests as a thinly
veiled attempt to achieve an old objective: disenfranchising African
Americans, Latinos, low-income people, young people, and people with
disabilities.
“But we are fighting back. Last week, a court struck
down North Carolina’s voter ID requirement, saying it was designed to
‘target African Americans with almost surgical precision.’ Similar
restrictions have recently been overturned in Wisconsin, Texas,
Michigan, North Dakota, and Kansas after courts found they were intended
to discriminate as well.
“This November, the notion that every
American has a voice in shaping our future is at stake. Donald Trump
supports discriminatory voting restrictions – and actually claims that
without them in place, the results of American elections should be
questioned. It’s a dangerous attempt to undermine the legitimacy of our
democracy.
“I have a very different view. I believe America is
stronger when we expand access to the ballot box, not restrict it.
That’s why I’ll fight to repair the Voting Rights Act, expand early
voting, and introduce universal, automatic voter registration.
“Upon
signing the Voting Rights Act in 1965, President Johnson said the right
to vote ‘is one which no American, true to our principles, can deny.’
“He was right.”
