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WASHINGTON - Millions of voters around the country file absentee ballots via mail, paying small sums of money to send their completed forms to the local election office.
U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey, a Democrat from Fort Worth, wants to make it free to cast an absentee ballot, likening the small amount of money to pay for a stamp to poll taxes that were once levied throughout the South.
"When I was a campaign worker, you would meet people who would want to vote but didn't have any money for postage," Veasey said. "It happens more often than people think."
A federal appeals court invalidated the Texas voter ID law this week. The controversial law is one of the strictest in the country, requiring voters to show one of seven forms of identification before casting their ballot. Despite the victory in court, the man who filed the lawsuit -- "Veasey v. Abbott" -- is cautious.
U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Fort Worth) challenged the law, and he explained the roots of the lawsuit.
…On what bothered him about the voter ID law:
WASHINGTON -- Texas' voter identification law violates federal laws prohibiting electoral discrimination and must be amended before the November election, an appeals court ruled Wednesday.
The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the heart of the 2011 state law, widely viewed as one of the nation's strictest requirements, ruling that it violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
The ability to vote is one of the most precious rights we have in this country. Chinese Americans know that because they were denied that right for 60 long years through the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Though much progress has been made for the Asian American Pacific Islander Community since then, it is alarming that today, that right is being threatened.
WASHINGTON — Democrats and civil rights groups are calling on Congress to act on legislation to restore a key provision of the Voting Rights Act the Supreme Court eliminated three years ago.
"We cannot allow our voices to be silenced and we must do whatever it takes to exercise our right to vote,'' Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said Saturday.
With today’s third anniversary of the Shelby v. Holder decision, I am reminded of two poll tax receipts hanging in my Congressional office. On January 31, 1949, my grandparents traveled to the tax assessor’s office in Jack County to pay their annual poll tax.
As a young civil rights activist, Congressman John Lewis was brutally beaten marching for the right to vote in Selma, Alabama. Lewis's heroism spurred the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the country's most important civil rights law.
'Give Us the Ballot' author says the gutting of the Voting Rights Act could affect the 2016 election
In a small press room on the fourth floor of the Cannon House building, an oversized crowd heard Revs. Jesse Jackson and Lennox Yearwood, joined by members of the newly formed (see https://www.opednews.com/articles/Congressional-Briefing-Apr-by-Marta-Steele-Bipartisan_Congressional-Committees_Corruption_Democracy-160422-490.html ) Congressional Voting Rights Caucus, and others, including Terri O'Neill, president of the National Organization for Women (NOW). The subject was the insidious disappearance of voting rights, including the relevant legislation, and what we can do to reverse it.
Washington, D.C. – On Thursday, June 23, 2016, Rep. Marc Veasey and Members of the Congressional Voting Rights Caucus will hold a press conference to demand immediate Congressional action on voting rights legislation. On the heels of the three-year anniversary of the Shelby v. Holder Supreme Court decision that dismantled key provisions of the Voting Rights Act, the Congressional Voting Rights Caucus is answering the call to protect and restore the right to vote for every U.S. citizen.
WHO:
Rep. Marc Veasey, TX-33
Tuesday marked the launch of the first Congressional Voting Rights Caucus. The caucus held a press conference outside the Capitol, led by Co-Chairs Representative Marc Veasey (TX-33) and Representative Terri Sewell (AL-7) announcing the formation of the caucus and the policy goals it hopes to advance.