By The Editors
U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Monday continued the Obama administration’s strong defense of voting rights and assertion that so-called voter ID laws are a threat to those rights.

LDF, the National Urban League and the NAACP respond to a Wall Street Journal editorial criticizing the Justice Department challenge of South Carolina’s new voter ID law.

The organizations argue that Florida has failed to meet its burden of showing that these changes to its Election Law will not have a retrogressive effect on minority voting rights, or that they were not adopted with a discriminatory purpose, as is required under the Section 5 preclearance provision of the Voting Rights Act.

By: Starla Muhammad from The Final Call
When an incarcerated person has paid a debt to society by serving jail or prison time, is released and ready to start a new life, many will have to wait a few years to be considered a real citizen.

On March 28, 2011, the nation’s premiere civil rights organizations, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), the NAACP, including its Florida State Conference of Branches, and Advancement Project, together urged Florida Governor Rick Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi to comply with the Voting Rights Act by submitting newly proposed changes to the state’s rules governing voter registration for persons with felony convictions to the federal government for approval.

By Kristen Clarke
Encouraging greater levels of community participation in the process and advocating for compliance with the Voting Rights Act can help ensure that this redistricting cycle produces maps that provide minority voters with equal access to the political process.

Civil Rights Groups Urge Florida Board Of Executive Clemency Not To Further Restrict Voting Rights

This week the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) presented oral argument in Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, a case challenging a core provision of the Voting Rights Act known as Section 5. The provision requires jurisdictions with a history of discrimination to have voting changes reviewed by the U.S. Department of Justice or the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to ensure that they are nondiscriminatory.

Yesterday the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) filed a brief in Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, a case challenging the constitutionality of two core provisions of the Voting Rights Act. The law requires jurisdictions with a history of discrimination to have voting changes reviewed by the U.S. Department of Justice or D.C. District Court to ensure they are free from discrimination.

By TaRessa Stovall
Voting is the foundation of our democracy, but barriers to this fundamental right—including burdensome, government-issued photo identification requirements, the elimination of voter names from rolls, and even blatant misinformation—disenfranchise thousands of minority voters each election cycle.