Sewell's bill to restore voting rights protections passes House

After four attempts under a Republican-led House, Rep. Terri Sewell’s bill to reinstate voting protections passed the House on its fifth try under Democratic control in a party-line vote.

Only one Republican joined Democrats on Friday to pass the Voting Rights Advancement Act, 228—187.

Passage of the legislation had been a top priority for Sewell, a Democrat raised in Selma who represents Birmingham and the Black Belt. She has carried the bill since 2015, two years after sections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were gutted by the Supreme Court decision Shelby County v. Holder. Among those provisions were requirements for several states, including Alabama, to clear any changes in election rules with the federal government.

“Voting is personal to me not just because I represent Alabama’s civil rights district, but because it was on the streets of my hometown of Selma that Foot Soldiers shed their blood on the Edmund Pettus Bridge so that all Americans, regardless of race, could vote,” Sewell said on the House floor.

Read more: https://www.al.com/news/2019/12/sewells-bill-to-restore-voting-rights-protections-passes-house.html