Breaking from Newsmax.com Andrew Young: Expand Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act has not outlived its usefulness and in fact should be expanded, says former Ambassador Andrew Young, who helped draft it in 1965. “You'd think we wouldn’t be having this discussion 50 years later,’’ Young told Steve Malzberg on Newsmax TV’s “The Steve Malzberg Show.’’ “People are making efforts to make it more difficult for citizens to vote at a time when we need more citizens voting.’’ At issue is a case in front of Supreme Court involving Alabama’s Shelby County, which questions the validity of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. That section requires states with a history of racial discrimination to have any changes to their voting laws pre-approved by the Justice Department or federal court. The suit claims the section — which now only affects a handful of states — has outlived its usefulness, and there are suggestions the Supreme Court may agree. Young does not. “If anything, the incidents of the last election and the voter suppression all across the country to me mean we really need to expand Section 5’s jurisdiction to include Ohio and some of the other states that were left out,’’ Young said.
We need more responsible and informed people voting. If they are too lazy to get an identification card, the chances are not good that they even really know who they are voting for. If they are too busy to responsibly inform themselves of the major issues, perhaps it is better that they not vote at all.
