Voter Discrimination/Suppression was worse this year than in 50 years

http://www.alternet.org/election-2014/civil-rights-pioneer-americas-discriminatory-election-landscape-worst-50-years?akid=12440.294211.lWt2gQ&rd=1&src=newsletter1025961&t=5


(Editor's note: The following remarks were made at a Washington, D.C. press conference on Tuesday by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which runs a national election protection hotline and legal aid service.)
Today, and for the past several weeks during early voting, we have been witnessing the most unfair, confusing and discriminatory election landscape in almost 50 years. And it’s a disgrace to our citizens, to our nation, and to our standing in the world as a beacon of democracy. Moreover, it comes as no surprise—no surprise whatsoever.
This is the predictable outcome in the first major election since the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder last year, when a bare majority chose to gut critical pieces of the Voting Rights Act. This rendered inoperable the pre-clearance system [of the Justice Department approving or blocking changes in state laws] that had worked for half a century to protect voters from discrimination before it could take effect.
As Justice Ginsburg said in her dissent in Shelby, it made as much sense as throwing away your umbrella in a rain storm simply because you’re not getting wet. Well, the storm is now raging, with powerful microbursts that are denying to U.S. citizens their inalienable right to participate in our demcracy.