Voting Rights Act provisions hurt Democrats

Jim Wooten reports:

"The Supreme Court ruled in 1966 that Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act — which requires stringent federal oversight of election law in several states, mainly in the Deep South — was constitutional only because it was narrowly tailored and 'temporary.' We're already well past 'temporary' at 41 years and cruising toward eternity by tacking on another 25 years of keeping Georgia in the penalty box,"

The states covered by Section 5 were determined by minority registration and turnout in the 1964, 1968 and 1972 elections, he notes. "The renewal gives no consideration to changes in voter equality since 1972."

Research by University of Georgia professor Charles S. Bullock III, the distinguished Richard B. Russell professor of political science, and University of Oklahoma professor Ronald Keith Gaddie documents the remarkable change that has occurred in Georgia over the life of the Voting Rights Act.

Just before the act's passage, 27.4 percent of nonwhites were registered, compared to 62.6 percent of whites. By 1994, "a larger percentage of blacks (57.6 percent) than whites (55) reported being registered," they write. In the 2000 and 2004 presidential-year elections, the percentage of black turnout was higher than white.

Section 5 will be renewed and applied to a world that existed decades ago, rather than to elections held in 2004, as Westmoreland argues, because politicians in both parties see advantage. As much as anything the national Democratic Party has done to lose the South by positions it takes and candidates it nominates, preclearance has helped destroy any competitive two-party system in Georgia.

By ensuring that black Democrats have safe districts, the Voting Rights Act guarantees that a dominant segment of the Democratic Party will be far more liberal than most Georgians. Liberals, black or white, can't get elected statewide in Georgia.

Politics isn't about justice or fairness.It's ironic though because the Democrats have dug its own grave on things like this.