John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act

The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (otherwise known as House Resolution 4) is a federal bill that responds to the wave of voter suppression tactics enacted by states and localities – including North Carolina – since the gutting of the Voting Rights Act in 2013.

H.R. 4 restores and modernizes the Voting Rights Act by requiring states and jurisdictions with a recent history of voter suppression to gain Federal approval before changing their voting laws. The bill also requires every state in the nation to gain Federal approval before enacting voting policies that disproportionately affect communities of color.

This bill restores the full power of the 1965 Voting Rights Act by:

1) Requiring any state or jurisdiction that has repeatedly violated voting rights in the recent past to gain Federal approval before changing their voting laws.

• States and municipalities that have violated voting rights in the past 25 years must get this Federal approval.
• This 25-year-period “rolls”, or continuously moves, so that only states with a recent record of racial discrimination violations are required to get approval.
  • This vastly improves the original Voting Rights Act, which did not have a measure for addressing states with a recent record of racial discrimination in voting.
  • This directly addresses the primary reason the Supreme Court struck down the previous pre-clearance formula in Shelby County v. Holder.
• States / jurisdictions that qualify for preclearance must seek Federal approval before changing voting laws for a period of 10 years.
  • If they establish a clean record after this period of time, they are no longer required to gain pre-clearance.
• Before Shelby County v. Holder, the preclearance formula covered jurisdictions that had voter registration or turnout rates below 50 percent in 1964 and had employed discriminatory devices to discourage voting, like literacy tests.
  • The Supreme Court ruled that this formula was outdated.
  • 40 of 100 North Carolina counties were covered by preclearance.

2) Requiring every state to gain Federal approval before enacting voting policies that disproportionately affect communities of color. 

• This is another improvement to the Voting Rights Act, as it creates a new safeguard against states who seek to limit ballot access for Black and brown voters.
• States would need approval from the Federal government before doing any of the following:
  • Changing election methods in areas that are racially, ethnically, or linguistically diverse
  • Redistricting to dilute racial or language minority groups’ vote in areas that are racially, ethnically, or linguistically diverse
  • Redistricting in an area where a racial or language minority group’s population has increased
  • Changing the documentation or requirements to register or vote
  • Reducing language assistance for voting
  • Reducing polling locations in areas that are racially, ethnically, or linguistically diverse

The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would also: 

• Allow the attorney general to request the presence of federal observers anywhere in the country where there is a serious threat of racial discrimination in voting.
• Increase transparency for voters by requiring reasonable public notice for voting changes. This will ensure that voters are made aware of late-breaking changes in voting procedures.
• Revise the preliminary injunction standard for voting rights actions. This provision recognizes that when voting rights are at stake, stopping a discriminatory practice after the election has already concluded is too late.
• Increase accessibility and protections for Native American and Alaska Native voters.

Whatever our race, background or zip code, in America we value our freedom. Congress passed the Voting Rights Act to protect our freedom to vote and ensure that attempts to create discriminatory barriers to voting were formally reviewed. But in 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court took us backwards by making it even more difficult for voters to challenge discriminatory voting laws in the future. And now the same faction who have been spreading lies about our election, passing anti-voter bills at the state level, and who have blocked an investigation into a deadly attack on our Capitol are trying to use the same loophole to block legislation that the majority of Americans across the political spectrum have demanded to protect our freedom to vote.

This is a turning point for our nation. Our leaders must exercise their majority, eliminate the filibuster, and pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to create national standards to ensure that we can safely and freely cast our ballots and have a say in the jobs and health care we have access to, the roads we drive on, and the education our kids receive.

Learn more about the Freedom to Vote Act!