With John Lewis presiding, new voting rights bill passes

Act aims to install protections struck by court in 2013.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. John Lewis, who once marched in the name of civil rights, stood at the speaker’s chair and gaveled in a vote to renew portions of the Voting Rights Act.

The House passed the legislation on Friday by a mostly party-line vote. Only one Republican joined with Democrats in supporting the Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would renew voter protections that were scrapped after a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Prior to the vote, U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath spoke in favor of the bill. She said she watched her father pursue protections for minority voters as the head of the Illinois Branch of the NAACP.

“When it comes to voting rights, my father’s work is still unfinished,” McBath, a Democrat who lives in Marietta, said. “And today, I am so proud we are taking an important step toward completing that work.”

McBath said she was a child in a stroller during the 1963 March on Washington. Lewis, an Atlanta Democrat, was one of the speakers that day and is a co-sponsor of the legislation approved Friday.

The Voting Rights Advancement Act would create a new formula for the U.S. Department of Justice to use to determine which states with histories of voting discrimination would be required to pre-clear proposed election changes. If it becomes law, the Justice Department would again have the power to strike down proposed voting changes in Georgia.

Stacey Abrams, the former candidate for governor in Georgia, spoke in favor of the bill during a committee hearing in June.

The legislation now goes to the Senate, where approval is unlikely in the Republican-led chamber.

U.S. Rep. John Lewis