Statewide Iowa — Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley does not have high hopes for the voting rights bill that passed the U.S. House in a party line vote on Tuesday.
Democrats say the legislation, named for the late Georgia Representative John Lewis, is designed to safeguard voting rights, but Grassley, a Republican, disagrees.
Supporters say the measure would restore important elements of the Voting Rights Act that were thrown out by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013. Grassley says the Lewis bill would force state legislatures to get “pre-clearance” from the U.S. Justice Department for almost any change in election laws.
Grassley makes a comparison to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1964, before which, only about six-percent of the blacks in Mississippi cast ballots.
The Lewis bill passed the House on a close vote, 219 to 212, and it’s not expected to advance in the Senate.
