Now that we’ve lost our national consensus that it’s a good idea for more people to vote, I’ve found myself wondering whether the current Congress could pass the Voting Rights Act if it were before them now.
When I floated this question in here, Rachel sent over this bit on what else Congressman Todd Akin said when he was talking about rape and pregnancy — namely the problems with having federal protection for the right to vote:
Well, first of all when you talk about elections, specifically, elections historically have always been a state thing. And I didn’t realize how important or how good that was until we had that very close race, that second race with George Bush, and you had something that goes wrong in Florida. And I’m thinking, it sure is good the states manage this and not the federal government otherwise you have to rehold the whole election process. So I do think the states having a say in terms of how they do the voting in their own state. That was a good principle laid down in the past.
Akin’s office later clarified his remarks to reflect that he does consider voting a fundamental right.









