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Originally published on National Public Radio (NPR) April 18, 2005 Copyright 2005 National Public Radio (R)

News & Notes with Ed Gordon 9:00 AM EST NPR

ED GORDON, host:

From NPR News, this is NEWS & NOTES. I'm Ed Gordon.

Political and civil rights leaders are pushing for a congressional re-authorization of parts of the Voting Rights Act. The bill will expire in 2007. The Voting Rights Act was pushed by President Lyndon Johnson 40 years ago last month in a nationally televised speech that led to congressional approval.

(Soundbite from speech)

Former President LYNDON JOHNSON: Rarely are we met with a challenge, not to our growth or abundance or our welfare or our security, but rather to the values and the purposes and the meaning of our beloved nation. The issue of equal rights for American Negroes is such an issue.

GORDON: The Voting Rights Act was aimed at ending discriminatory practices in the South that put blacks at risk if they tried to vote or organize voter registration drives. But since the highly contested election in 2000, voter intimidation has once again been called into question. Earlier this year, President Bush's remarks at a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus also caused concern for supporters. When asked, the president reportedly said he was unaware of the pending re-authorization of the act. Earlier this month on NEWS & NOTES, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman said the president is committed to voting rights equality.

Mr. KEN MEHLMAN (Republican National Committee, Chairman): And the fact is that one section of the Voting Rights Act expires and requires renewal. It's Section 5. It involves redistricting, and it means that every 10 years when redistricting occurs, the effective redistricting cannot be to substantially diminish the majority minority districts 'cause that would reduce African-American representation. We have a Justice Department and a president that is totally committed to enforcing the Voting Rights Act.

GORDON: That's RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman.

Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Bobby Rush of Illinois and Ted Shaw, director-counsel and president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Gentlemen, thanks very much. Ted, let me turn my attention to you first. You heard what Ken Mehlman had to say, that is one provision of the Voting Rights Act that's being looked at, but in fact, there are others.

Mr. TED SHAW (NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund): That's right. The provisions that are up for re-authorization actually go beyond Section 5, although that's the most important provision in the minds of many people but not all people. There are really three parts of it that are up for re-authorization: Section 5, which requires all states and jurisdictions that have a history of discrimination to pre-clear all electoral changes with either the Justice Department or a federal court in Washington, DC, or the jurisdictions that have low voter registration historically.

Also, we have Section 203, which governs language minorities. It requires those language minorities to get assistance, and often that's not complied with. And lastly, Sections 6 through 9 cover federal monitors. The federal government can send federal monitors under certain conditions to jurisdictions to make sure that elections are being carried out properly. Section 5, though, to go back to that for a quick moment, deals with more than redistricting. Any change in procedure has to be pre-cleared. So it's actually much more complicated than Mr. Mehlman indicated.

GORDON: And, Ted, before I turn our attention to Congressman Rush, one of the things that I think it's important to note--and many people have the misinterpretation of what the Voting Rights Act does and many people have run scared--if this act were to expire, even in its entirety, blacks would still be able to vote. It does not give you the right to vote.

Mr. SHAW: Of course. The right to vote is guaranteed against racial discrimination by the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution, and it's guaranteed against gender discrimination by the 19th Amendment. But the Voting Rights Act was enacted in 1965 to cover a whole set of problems and procedures that historically had kept African-Americans from voting. So it is an enactment of law to pursue the constitutional goals.

There is some talk about constitutional amendments to guarantee the right to vote, as you know. Congressman Jesse Jackson has such an amendment, and he's really looking at the kinds of problems that arose in 2000 and 2004, where people, for one reason or another, have been kept from having their votes count. And, you know, there's not a lot of opposition to that at this point, but the right to vote is guaranteed against racial discrimination by the Constitution, and it does not expire.

GORDON: Congressman Rush, thanks for joining us. Let me turn my attention to you. Much has been made of the meeting with the president. You were part of that meeting of the CBC, and we had Jesse Jackson Jr. on with us. And his suggestion was when he asked the question of the president, he seemed to be oblivious of this situation in terms of the extension. Is that the read you have?

Representative BOBBY RUSH (Democrat, Illinois): That's certainly the read, Ed. I was astounded that the president, of all Americans, the leader of this country, did not possess any knowledge that these provisions had to be re-authorized by the Congress and that pretty soon he would have some type of an amendment or some type of bill on his desk that he would have to sign. He hesitated, absolutely looked befuddled and, frankly, I just thought that that was a real low mark, a low point of the entire meeting.

GORDON: Now the CBC has taken up the mantle, if you will, to try to assist in not only Jesse Jackson's want to make it an amendment but also Reverend Jesse Jackson's want to gain signatures of support for this. Tell me what the body of the CBC is doing, Congressman.

Rep. RUSH: Well, the CBC is moving very, very aggressively not only to engage in the gathering of the signatures on the petitions that Reverend Jackson has created and that he's circulating around the nation, but the CBC is also working with other members of Congress, working with members of the Senate in order to make sure that these re-authorization measures are measures that would really solve the particular problems that we are confronted with right now in America and that they will also capture the spirit of Section 4, Section 5 and Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act.

GORDON: Ted Shaw, what do you say to critics who will simply say to you that in today's world, the Voting Rights Act does not have the same impact that it did in 1965 and that it's more symbolic than anything else?

Mr. SHAW: Well, of course, since 1965, it's the Voting Rights Act that has been responsible, largely speaking, for the fact that 9,000 African-American elected officials are in office in state, federal, local levels. I don't think that it takes a whole lot to show that we still need the Voting Rights Act. We saw the problems in 2000; we saw the problems in 2004. We know that there are attempts to intimidate people away from voting in presidential elections and in other elections. The act covers those things.

The Legal Defense Fund has a site that I invite people to visit if they want to understand all of this. It's called the Voting Rights Act in 28 Days, and you can visit our Web site, www.naacpldf.org, and it talks about the kinds of problems that we're still litigating. In Jefferson County, Louisiana, for example, we have litigation right now involving at-large elections, an old tried-and-true method of diluting black voting strength that the Voting Rights Act speaks directly to. So it's still very important to further the goals of the Constitution with respect to guaranteeing the right to vote against racial discrimination.

GORDON: Congressman, as sophisticated a voter as the African-American has become, we should note, as Ted Shaw just suggested there, there are still many, many African-Americans and people of color in this country who are intimidated, frankly, not only physically intimidated but just intimidated with the nature of going to cast a vote.

Rep. RUSH: That's certainly the case. The black community in general has shown remarkable strength, remarkable and sophisticated actions and mind-set in terms of casting their votes. But there are many, many others who, as you said, are, frankly, intimidated by the voting process, who are absolutely intimidated by even going to the polls. And you have in states--in my own county, Cook County, where Chicago is located, it's one of the most egregious county subdivisions in America as it relates to intimidation of voters. And we have to use all of our strategies, all the legal apparatuses that exist for us. We have to use those strategies, those apparatuses to ensure that everybody can get to an accessible polling place with no intimidation so that they can cast their vote.

I am afraid that if we just focus on Florida and what happened in Florida and we just focus on what happened in Ohio, we'll miss the broad spectrum of African-American people around this nation whose constitutional rights are being denied because they are intimidated to the point where they cannot vote. You know, I'm very much concerned about some of the recent strategies that are being conducted by state legislators and by governors in terms of these ID cards. I don't know if these ID cards is going to open up...

GORDON: Yeah.

Rep. RUSH: ...a Pandora's box.

GORDON: Ted, you're nodding in the affirmative.

Mr. SHAW: Well, that's right. Georgia, for example, has an ID requirement in the name of fighting voter fraud. Georgia has to pre-clear using ID requirements to keep people from voting with Section 5. Section 5 is important because of that. ID requirements are going to fall disproportionately on African-Americans, Latinos, poor people. There are a lot of people who don't have governmental ID, they don't have driver's licenses, even though some people find that hard to believe. The right to vote is constitutionally guaranteed. It does not mean that you have to have ID. So, again, there are all kinds of efforts to keep people from voting. Some are intentional, some are unintentional, but all of them are governed by the terms of the Voting Rights Act. And without it, we can't stop many of these...

GORDON: Yeah.

Mr. SHAW: ...procedures that are being employed.

GORDON: Congressman, with literally about 30 seconds, do you feel confident that we will see an extension of the Voting Rights Act?

Rep. RUSH: I feel confident that we will see this extension. I just wanted to encourage all your listeners to get in contact with their congressmen and their senators and make sure that the spirit of the 1965 Voting Rights Act--that that spirit is not only protected but that spirit is nurtured and promoted.

GORDON: All right, Cong...

Mr. SHAW: It also is important that it be extended in the right way. There's some traps in here. It will probably be extended, but it has to be right if it's going to withstand constitutional attack.

GORDON: All right. Congressman Bobby Rush of Illinois and Ted Shaw, director-counsel and president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. And, as Ted suggested, if you'd like more information, you can go on their Web site and get it. Gentlemen, thank you very much for joining us. Greatly appreciate it.

Mr. SHAW: Thank you, Ed.

Cong. RUSH: Thank you.

GORDON: Coming up on today's roundtable, police vs. dealers, dueling DVDs on the streets of Baltimore, "Stop Snitching" vs. "Keep Talking."

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