Voting Rights Discrimination

The 1965 Voting Rights Act outlawed literacy tests and poll taxes to determine who was allowed to vote. Anyone who is an American citizen and registered to vote will be allowed to vote.

The Voting Rights Act also allowed the federal government to oversee voter registration and elections in places where the voter registration or turnout was less than 50 percent.

The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 - often referred to as the "motor voter" law- requires states to make voter registration opportunities available when people apply for or receive services at a variety of government agencies, such as:

• Drivers' license offices
• Social service agencies
• Public benefits offices

Voting "Dilution"

The Voting Rights Act also makes it illegal for any state or local government to use election processes that aren't equally open to minority voters, or that give minority voters less opportunity than other voters to participate in the political process. It is illegal to have an election system that "dilutes" the vote of racial minority groups by drawing voting districting lines that divide minority communities and keep them from putting enough votes together to elect representatives of their choice to public office.

To show "dilution" in these situations, there must be:

• A geographically concentrated minority population
• Voting that is polarized by race (a pattern in which minority voters and white voters tend to vote differently as groups)
• Proof that white voters, by voting as a bloc against minority-choice candidates, usually beat those candidates even if minority voters are unified or cohesive at the polls

Anyone harmed by minority vote dilution can bring a federal lawsuit to stop it. If the court decides that the particular election system makes minority votes less effective than white votes, it can order a change in the election system, such as:

• Adopting districting plans to replace at-large voting
• Redrawing election district lines in a way that gives minority voters the same opportunity as other voters to elect representatives of their choice

Breaking Language Barriers

There are now expanded voting rights for non-English-speaking Americans, including special provisions for:

• Allowing someone to come with you to interpret the ballot
• Help with reading the ballot if it isn't written in your native language
• Printing of ballots and other election materials in minority languages as well as in English

Civil Rights Message Board for more help