Voting Rights Act Extension Not Needed in Georgia

VOTING RIGHTS ACT EXTENSION NOT NEEDED IN GEORGIA -- (House of Representatives - November 03, 2005)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Westmoreland) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. WESTMORELAND. Mr. Speaker, in 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act to stop the systematic civil rights violations that were the status quo in my home State of Georgia and various other States. In those dark days, the Federal Government rightly stepped in to extend the guarantees of our Constitution to every American, regardless of race.

Georgians have worked together closely for the past 40 years to heal the wounds of the past, and we have progressed tremendously. Black Georgians today are equal partners, not only in access to the voting booth but also to elected positions of power.

In the parts of Georgia that experienced the most oppressive and violent abuses of civil rights, that is in counties and cities where African Americans are a majority, black Georgians are now the leaders of those local communities. African Americans hold a significant portion of the seats in the Georgia legislature, where many have held positions of great influence. Nine of our 34 Statewide elected posts are held by African Americans, a percentage that comes close to mirroring their proportion of the State's population.

Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker is an African American who has twice won Statewide election to that post. Our Statewide elected labor commissioner is black, as are three justices on our State Supreme Court. Four African Americans hold seats in our 13 member House delegation. Two of those black members defeated white candidates in majority white districts.

African Americans have exercised their electoral muscle for decades now in Georgia. Blacks in Georgia have higher levels of voter registration and participation than do whites. In fact, blacks in Georgia have higher registration rates than do most blacks outside the South.

Furthermore, black and white candidates for public office draw comparable support from white voters. In other words, black and white candidates of the same party win or lose at the polls with similar vote percentages. No longer will Georgians vote against a black candidate simply because he or she is black.

With these facts in mind, I call on Congress to let Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act expire. Section 5 was implemented as a temporary statute to correct a specific problem. In the late 1960s, the Supreme Court ruled that Section 5 was constitutional only because it was narrowly tailored and temporary. Mr. Speaker, I would suggest to my colleagues here in the House that 40 years is more than temporary.

Now Congress is considering extending Section 5 for another 25 years, to 2030, without giving any consideration to the changes that have occurred since 1965. If there is a need for Section 5 today in Georgia, it must be needed everywhere.

If it is good for Georgia, it will be good for your State too. But if you do not think your State election laws should be subjected to Federal oversight, then I challenge each and every one of you to at least, Mr. Speaker, look at the facts of today's Georgia before casting a vote that does not affect your constituents, but does affect mine.

Georgia has fulfilled the vision of the Voting Rights Act and should be treated the same as every other State.

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