The Voting Rights Act of 1965: A History
Last week, the United States Supreme Court ruled to throw out Louisiana’s new voting maps, citing them as unconstitutional gerrymandering (Louisiana v Callais et al.). This ruling directly conflicts with the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which was created to remedy voter suppression that resulted in the gross underrepresentation of Black voters. In this edition of Learning Lab, we outline the importance of the Voting Rights Act, what this ruling might mean, and what New Mexico’s leaders can do about it.
The United States Constitution does not explicitly grant the right to vote. Instead, it grants states the right to set voting policies. When the country was founded, the Constitution was written by and for European men, and its implementation led to the concentration of power and voting rights among white male landowners. After the Civil War, slavery was not fully abolished until the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865. Black people were not awarded citizenship until 1866. The 15th Amendment was passed in 1869 making it unconstitutional to deny a person the right to vote based on race, color, or previous servitude. This granted Black men the right to vote. Despite these new laws on the books, discrimination against the Black community and other communities of color was perpetuated throughout all systems of government, while state governments identified additional ways to prevent Black people from voting.
It also wasn’t until 1919 that the Constitution was amended to outlaw discrimination based on sex (granting primarily white women the right to vote via the 19th Amendment), and Indigenous people were only granted citizenship and the right to vote in 1924. Asian people were not granted the right to vote until 1952, and other communities of color were prevented from voting due to onerous and deliberately discriminatory English literacy tests, poll taxes, and other onerous obstacles until 1975. Women and people of color continued to be disenfranchised for nearly 100 years through Jim Crow Segregation until the passage of the Voting Rights Act, which set new nationwide standards to hold states and bad actors accountable for voter suppression and disenfranchisement.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 accomplished the following:
- Identified the places where discrimination was most likely to occur and established a process to prevent discriminatory policies from taking effect in these places. This required the federal government to review election law, policy or district map changes before they went into effect, called “preclearance”
- Required federal observers to monitor elections in state and local governments
- Protects the creation of “majority-minority” districts, ensuring that non-white racial and linguistic populations have the opportunity to be represented by their candidate of choice
- Required certain places to publish information in languages in addition to English and to provide assistance to non-English-speaking voters
- Prohibited the use of residency requirements to prevent citizens from voting for President and Vice President
- Empowering federal courts to impose the Act’s requirements in places that were not already covered by it
Since then, the Voting Rights Act has served as a foundation for court cases challenging racist and discriminatory practices and ensuring states adopt district maps and laws that do not discriminate against or silence voting populations.
However, in recent years, a more conservative Supreme Court has chipped away at the Voting Rights Act’s authority. In 2013, a largely white suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, filed suit in federal court asking that Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which mandates preclearance, be declared unconstitutional. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled 5-4 in Shelby County’s favor, claiming that the formula used to identify preclearance eligibility was out of date, therefore making any preclearance requirements unenforceable. As a result, changes to voting rights laws in areas of the country with demonstrated histories of disenfranchisement are no longer reviewed and vetted before they go into effect and must now be challenged in court.
In 2021, the Democratic National Committee challenged the state of Arizona because ballots were thrown out if voters cast ballots in the wrong precinct, or if they had a mail-in ballot turned in by a nonrelative neighbor or friend. For context, Arizona has one of the largest Indigenous populations in the nation, who experience significant voter suppression due to the remote nature of the Navajo Nation and a lack of access to transportation. This, coupled with COVID-19, made it not uncommon for voters to ask their neighbors to deliver their mail, including mail-in ballots. In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the burden on communities of color and Native voters was “too little” to act, essentially acknowledging that discrimination exists, but it was okay and long as there’s not too much of it.
In 2023, New Mexico advocates responded to this dismantling of federal voting rights protections through the passage of the NM Voting Rights Act. This made New Mexico a national leader in democracy protection in the wake of federal uncertainty, codifying the following:
- Automatically registering voters when they apply for or renew their driver’s license
- Restores the right to vote for previously incarcerated individuals
- Creates a voluntary permanent absentee voter list
- Prohibits the transfer of publication of voter data online
- Mandates same-day voting registration at all polling places
- Mandate at least two monitored secure ballot drop boxes per county
- Enacts the first-in-the-nation Native American Voting Rights Act allowing Indigenous nations, tribes, and pueblos to amend their request for voting locations and to apply for secured ballot drop boxes and allows electors to use government buildings as their mailing address
The Trump Administration has further called for the decimation of voting rights through the passage of legislation like the SAVE Act, which has stalled in Congress due to widespread unpopularity. Trump also issued an April executive order (EO) that aims to rewrite federal election rules, requiring the U.S. Postal Service to determine who may vote by mail. As the Constitution directs states to determine voting procedures, this EO is unconstitutional and is being challenged by Attorney Generals across the country.
This brings us to last week’s Supreme Court ruling on Louisiana v Callais et al., which effectively allows states to allow partisan gerrymandering, diluting the voting power and voices of communities of color. While this ruling, combined with other attacks on the Voting Rights Act, are bleak, the U.S. Constitution has made it clear that the states, not the federal government, are central in shaping and implementing voting processes and policies. And, New Mexico has very clearly shown that states can and should fight back.
With such a critical election year ahead, 2026 will define the next four years of New Mexico’s democracy and legal leadership through the election of our Secretary of State and Attorney General. Officials in these roles are the state’s frontline of defense against federal attacks, and will ensure that New Mexico can uphold the core tenets of our democracy through proper and full implementation of our state’s redistricting process and NM Voting Rights Act.
CVNM’s commitment to “Democracy For All” as a priority has strengthened our leadership in the democracy space and enabled us to work with allies to shape legislative modernization and democracy action for the legislature to consider. We’re currently working on policy platforms for the next legislative session to ensure we remain the top state in the country on democracy action and continue to forge new paths to push back against federal threats to voting rights. Recently passed legislation prohibiting ICE and military presence at polls and allowing f semi-open primaries are two new examples from this work.
And our work, in partnership with others, to educate the public about their voting rights, is essential to combat disinformation and voter apathy facing so many communities these days. This has been a multi-year effort implemented by sister organization CVNM-EF to ensure that voters understand the power of the NM Voting Rights Act, how to hold officials accountable, ways to cast their ballot safely, and more. Together, we can face these unprecedented times together, with courage, knowing that through elections, policy, and community power, we can and will fight back.