The Democrat Party platform calls for the Department of Justice to intervene in elections across the country, supposedly in the interest of “voting rights.”
The party released its platform Sunday, ahead of the already-contentious Democratic National Convention in Chicago. It boasts the Department of Justice has “more than doubled” staff to enforce so-called “voting rights laws.” The document also calls for passage of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act, which, as Jonatahan Tobin previously explained in The Federalist, would “allow the federal government to intervene anywhere in the country to overrule local or state authorities” when the left claims election discrimination against minorities.
This proposed change, along with recent Democrat efforts, reveals the party’s intent to exert federal control over state elections.
Federalizing State Elections
When Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it enacted a formula requiring some jurisdictions to seek federal approval before changing voting laws, apparently to reduce racial voting restrictions of the Jim Crow era in compliance with the law. Congress continued authorizing the formula through 2006, letting the federal government continue to dictate local voting laws.
For example, South Carolina was required to “preclear” a law requiring photo ID to vote in 2012, and the DOJ denied it. Leftist groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and Brennan Center for Justice intervened in South Carolina v. Holder, and a three-judge panel allowed the law to take effect, but “clarified” that the law “does not require a photo ID to vote.”
The Supreme Court ruled in Shelby County
