[EL] Sen. Thad Cochran & VRAA

[Steve Kolbert]

Some historical context to the news that Senator Cochran is not currently
supporting the VRAA:

During the congressional debate over the VRA's 1982 reauthorization,
Senator Cochran sponsored an amendment to (1) eliminate DOJ's
administrative preclearance authority and substantially reduce DOJ's role
in judicial preclearance, and (2) apply the preclearance regime nationally,
instead of to a select few jurisdictions. See 128 Cong. Rec. 14,279-82
(June 18, 1982). The Senator's 2013 post-Shelby statement
<http://www.cochran.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2013/6/cochran-statement-on-u-s-supreme-court-ruling-on-the-voting-rights-act>
indirectly referenced his dislike of (1) DOJ's role in the preclearance
process, and (2) the application of preclearance to only a select few
jurisdictions.

In other words, Senator Cochran has had essentially the same two concerns
with preclearance for over thirty years. The VRAA as currently drafted does
not address his two concerns. Yet VRAA supporters nonetheless attempted,
very publicly, to win his support.

(I have a PDF of the relevant Congressional Record pages for anyone
interested who wants to e-mail me off-list, but the 3.5 mb file is too
large to attach to a listserv e-mail.)


Steve Kolbert
(202) 422-2588
steve.kolbert at gmail.com
@Pronounce_the_T


On Fri, Jun 27, 2014 at 3:59 PM, Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu> wrote:
 (Pipe) Dreams Dashed Dept: Thad Cochran Not Supporting Voting Rights Act
Fix <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=62855>
 Posted on June 27, 2014 12:29 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=62855> by Rick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Sen. Cochran's spokesperson tells Greg Sargent
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/06/27/trolling-of-thad-cochran-on-voting-rights-fails-to-get-desired-effect/>
:

I asked Cochran spokesman Chris Gallegos for a response. He said Cochran is
"listening" to the argument over the new legislation, but directed me back
to his previous statement
<http://www.cochran.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2013/6/cochran-statement-on-u-s-supreme-court-ruling-on-the-voting-rights-act>
praising the SCOTUS decision. Gallegos also emailed:

It does appear that Tuesday's election generally went smoothly, even as the
state implemented its new voter ID law.  Mississippi election officials
deserve credit.  The Senator would concur with Senator Rand Paul, who
recently said, "I'm for more people voting, not less people voting."

 [image: Share]
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  Posted in Voting Rights Act <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>, VRAA
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=81>
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