Voting Rights Act Update- Neo-Confederates defeated, for now

My blogging on the Neo-Confederate opposition to the Voting Rights Act is at this link:

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2006/06/neo-confederate-opposition-to-voting.html

One of the two founding books of the Neo-Confederate movement, "The South Was Right!" by the Kennedy Brothers specifically denounced the Voting Rights Act. http://www.kennedytwins.com/ http://www.kennedytwins.com/oped.htm
http://www.kennedytwins.com/publications.htm

The House renewed the Voting Rights Act for another 25 years. The efforts of the Neo-Confederates for 20 years have come to nothing. The following is a link to the "Washington Post" article.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/13/AR2006071300369.html


The votes can be looked at and some of the house history at this link.

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/109/house/2/votes/374/

You can look at it by region and state and by party at the above link. There seems to be a combined anti-immigration opposition and the more classic anti-civil rights opposition, so the opposition is concentrated in the Southwest and South. I should say that the majority of representatives in the South did vote for it. However, if you read the article, there were very large votes to weaken the Voting Rights Act. I suspect that many thought that they could hamstring the voting rights act with amendments, and then vote for a crippled voting rights act, but portray themselves as a supporter for voting rights acts. Some of those votes, for the amendments were not close, but too close for comfort.

But after the efforts to cripple the voting rights act failed, almost everyone voted for it, rather than being revealed for their opposition for it.

This is the link to the online Congressional Record. http://thomas.loc.gov/

These are the amendments attempts for the Voting Rights Act. Notice the votes were not so lopsided as the final vote for the Voting Rights Act. If you follow the link to the amendment, you can see the roll call votes for each attempt to cripple the voting rights act.


Amendments For H.R.9
1. H.AMDT.1182 to H.R.9 Sponsor: House Rules (introduced 7/13/2006) Cosponsors (None) Committees: House Rules Latest Major Action: 7/13/2006 House amendment offered

2. H.AMDT.1183 to H.R.9 An amendment numbered 1 printed in House Report 109-554 to update the formula in section 4 of the Voting Rights Act that determines which states and jurisdictions will be covered under Section 5 of the act. This updated formula would be a rolling test based off of the last three presidential elections. Any state would be subject to Section 5 if it currently has a discriminatory test in place or voter turnout of less than 50% in any of the three most recent presidential elections. Sponsor: Rep Norwood, Charlie [GA-9] (introduced 7/13/2006) Cosponsors (None) Latest Major Action: 7/13/2006 House amendment not agreed to. Status: On agreeing to the Norwood amendment (A002) Failed by recorded vote: 96 - 318 (Roll no. 370). http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll370.xml

3. H.AMDT.1184 to H.R.9 An amendment numbered 2 printed in House Report 109-554 to make the reauthorization period 10 years, rather than the 25 years proposed in the act. Sponsor: Rep Gohmert, Louie [TX-1] (introduced 7/13/2006) Cosponsors (None) Latest Major Action: 7/13/2006 House amendment not agreed to. Status: On agreeing to the Gohmert amendment (A003) Failed by recorded vote: 134 - 288 (Roll no. 371). http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll371.xml

4. H.AMDT.1185 to H.R.9 An amendment numbered 3 printed in House Report 109-554 which seeks to strike sections 7 and 8 from the bill. Sections 7 and 8 relate to multilingual ballots and use of American Community Survey census data, and they would automatically expire in 2007. Sponsor: Rep King, Steve [IA-5] (introduced 7/13/2006) Cosponsors (None) Latest Major Action: 7/13/2006 House amendment not agreed to. Status: On agreeing to the King (IA) amendment (A004) Failed by recorded vote: 185 - 238 (Roll no. 372). http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll372.xml

5. H.AMDT.1186 to H.R.9 An amendment numbered 4 printed in House Report 109-554 which seeks to provide for an expedited, proactive procedure to bail out from coverage under the preclearance portions of the Voting Rights Act, by requiring the Department of Justice to assemble a list of all jurisdictions eligible for bailout and to notify the jurisdictions. The Department of Justice is then required to consent to the entry of a declaratory judgment allowing bailout if a jurisdiction appears on the list. Adds a three-year initial time period (and annually thereafter) for assembly of the bailout list by the Department of Justice. Sponsor: Rep Westmoreland, Lynn A. [GA-8] (introduced 7/13/2006) Cosponsors (None) Latest Major Action: 7/13/2006 House amendment not agreed to. Status: On agreeing to the Westmoreland amendment (A005) Failed by recorded vote: 118 - 302 (Roll no. 373). http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll373.xml