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OUR VIEW Our View: States should follow Oregon's example on voting MailTribune.com Writer Posted Aug. 7, 2015 @ 12:01 am Posted Aug. 7, 2015 @ 12:01 am » Social News p bs:newslist StartDate="20121121" EndDate="p bs:datecalc Months="3"" DateSort="1" UseObjects="1" ObjectClass="81" Taxonomywords="2325,665" ExactTaxonomyMatch="1" Image="1" Count="4" --> As leaders across the political spectrum mark the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act this week, battles still being waged over new voting restrictions suggest we haven't come as far as we — or the Supreme Court — think we have. Oregon's pioneering approach serves as a counterpoint to what's happening in other states. On Aug. 6, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. looked on. The law essentially restored what the 15 Amendment to the Constitution had supposedly granted in 1870: the right to vote regardless of " race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Despite that guarantee, Southern states had for years enacted restrictive laws designed to keep blacks from voting, including secret ballots, poll taxes and "literacy tests" designed to be impossible to pass. The Voting Rights Act made those laws unconstitutional. So, half a century after the Voting Rights Act, has it served its purpose? Chief Justice John Roberts argued that it has two years ago, when the U.S. Supreme Court, in Shelby v. Holder, threw out portions of the Voting Rights Act that required local jurisdictions with a history of discrimination to get "preclearance" from the Justice Department before changing their voting laws. Roberts wrote that the act shouldn't be a punishment for the past, and argued that racial divisions had improved greatly since 1965. Since that 2013 ruling, several states have taken steps to make voting more, not less, difficult, on the grounds of preventing fraud — despite a lack of evidence that voter fraud is occurring. And the courts are taking notice. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that a Texas law requiring voters to show photo ID discriminated against minorities, because they are less likely to have the accepted forms, such as driver's or gun licenses, while forms they are more likely to have — student IDs, for instance — are not accepted. Meanwhile, Oregonians look on with amusement at these attempts to make voting harder. Here, vote-by-mail is perhaps the easiest method of all: Mark your ballot in the privacy of your own home up to 2½ weeks before Election Day, and mail it back or drop it off at your convenience. Oregon has been all vote by mail since 2000. Turnout regularly exceeds the national average, and in the first 13 years, there have been 13 cases of voter fraud out of 24 million ballots cast. If all states adopted vote-by-mail systems, maybe the Voting Rights Act could be allowed to fade away. But as long as some states insist on making it harder to vote, we'd best keep it around for awhile. MailTribune.com Writer Posted Aug. 7, 2015 @ 12:01 am » Comment or view comments /* $( document ).ready(function() { // Jquery mobile is trying to style the button and leaving a blank gry button on top of a white button $("#viafouracoms .vf-comment-controls li.vf-right").html(' Submit '); });*/ » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. calendar Connect with MailTribune.com Facebook Twitter RSS Back to top Reader Services Reader Services Home Subscriptions Subscriber controls Contact us Submissions Photos Events Letters to the editor Corrections Announcements Obituaries Story ideas Since you asked Alerts Email Alerts RSS Feeds Text Alerts Advertise Media Kit Home Products and services Ad rates Advertising contacts Propel Marketing Mail Tribune Daily Tidings The Nickel Shop Our Valley Blogs Mobile Site Stay Informed Email newsletter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. 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