Sen. Rand Paul told a Louisville, Ky., audience Wednesday that there is no evidence that African-Americans are being excluded from voting, according to a report.
Speaking at the Louisville Forum, Paul said while the government should still intervene if an individual’s rights are violated, the Voting Rights Act shouldn’t focus on past instances of discrimination, according to WFPL radio.
“The interesting thing about voting patterns now is in this last election, African-Americans voted at a higher percentage than whites in almost every one of the states that were under the special provisions of the federal government,” he said. “So really, I don’t think there is objective evidence that we’re precluding African-Americans from voting any longer.”
Paul told the audience that he supports voter ID legislation, and comparing such laws to Jim Crow-era legislation is a disservice to the civil rights movement.
“I don’t see a problem with showing your driver’s license to vote,” he said. “I also think that some people are a little bit stuck in the past when they want to compare this. There was a time in the South when African-Americans were absolutely prohibited from voting by selective applications of bizarre and absurd literacy tests. And that was an abomination, that’s why we needed the Voting Rights Act, but that’s not showing your ID.”
Paul’s comments come on the heels of increased attention on voting laws after the Supreme Court struck down part of the Voting Rights Act that held certain states under a pre-approval requirement for voting law changes. On Monday, North Carolina’s governor signed a voter ID law with sweeping changes to the state’s voting laws that was immediately challenged in federal court by civil rights groups, who claim the bill will restrict minority and protected classes from voting.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
