ABSTRACT
The Voting Rights Act (VRA) is one of the most successful civil rights statutes ever enacted. It has made the dream of political participation a reality for millions of minorities in the United States. Many of the Act’s most important protections are temporary measures that prevent and remedy discrimination in states with histories of voter disenfranchisement. Some have argued that renewal of these provisions, which had been scheduled to expire on August 6, 2007, 2 was non-controversial. For example, according to Katherine Tate, “The extension of the temporary provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act sailed through Congress and was signed into law by President George Bush on July 27, 2006 without any major turbulence.” 3
