Press Release - The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Press Call Advisory: Why Texas Voters Need the Voting Rights Act
MP3 Now Available
For Immediate Release
Contact: Scott Westbrook Simpson, 202.466.2061, simpson@civilrights.org
February 20, 2013
Here is a link to the MP3: http://dl2.newmediamill.net/media/lccr/VRASCOTUSTexasPressCall.mp3
TEXAS – On Thursday, Feb. 21 at 12:30 p.m. EST/11:30 a.m. CST, legal experts, impacted voters, and elected officials from Texas will join together to brief the media about the importance of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) to the state’s voters.
The briefing will occur just five days before the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Shelby County v. Holder, a case challenging the constitutionality of Section 5 of the VRA. This challenge has far-reaching implications for the law’s ability to protect real voters in Texas.
In just the past two years in Texas, Section 5 of the VRA was responsible for stopping a discriminatory voter ID bill and a congressional/state redistricting scheme that would have diluted minority voting strength. Nationally, the Voting Rights Act rejected more than 1,000 proposed discriminatory voting changes between 1982 and 2006. You can see more about the Texas voter ID bill’s impact on real voters in this new video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmZq4-pfGR4.
On the call will be Julie Fernandes, an expert on the Voting Rights Act with the Open Society Foundations; Luis Figueroa, a lead attorney from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) whose organization has spearheaded Section 5 litigation on several proposed electoral changes in Texas; Victoria Rose Rodriguez, a young Texan whose voting rights were threatened by the state’s discriminatory voter ID law; and Texas State Representative Hubert Vo, who represents a majority-minority seat in Houston that the state legislature proposed eliminating in the last round of redistricting.
CALL DETAILS:
WHO:
- Julie Fernandes, Senior Policy Analyst for the Open Society Foundations
- Luis Figueroa, Attorney from MALDEF
- Victoria Rose Rodriguez, San Antonio student and impacted voter
- State Representative Hubert Vo, Texas District 149
WHAT: Press call on Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is important to Texas voters with legal experts and impacted Texans in advance of Supreme Court argument in landmark case.
WHEN: Thursday, February 21 at 12:30 p.m. EST/11:30 a.m. CST
