would gain clout. as of now, the case concerns only states and local voting districts but according to the new york times it s likely the decision from the court will also encompasskom pascompass redistricting in the united states congress. dale ho joins me now. this is the possibility of shifting back what happened in sims which shifted egalitarianism to city draws. reynolds versus sims established the basic principle and it s been here for 50 years that everyone counts equally in the process. if you look at things before that principle was established, california assigned one state senator to each county. l.a. county the 6 million people in it. the smallest had 14,000. people in that county had 400 times the representation as people in l.a. county. that created a host of problems. fundamentally undemocratic. it artificially inflated the political power of rural areas a
rancor. how can that be? that was president obama here in selma yesterday afternoon where he urged congress to strengthen the voting rights act. here with me now are dale ho director of the aclu s voting rights project and janine nelson, the naacp s legal defense funneled. so good to have you both with us today. talk to me about what you heard from the president yesterday. did he effectively make a case for why we need a strengthened voting rights act? absolutely. i think he situated this historical moment in the present day context. he said this is a movement that has spanned generations and yet still today we know there are rules and laws that are specifically intended to keep people from the polls. that s unacceptable 50 years after bloody sunday after people shed their blood, protested and laid their lives on the line to give us the democracy that we enjoy now. dale help me to know what
for a vote. but now cantor is out. and even if the bill were to pass in its current form, it leaves a gaping hole. disenfranchisement as a result of voter icht d. laws would not count as a voting rights violation. joining me now two individuals working feverishly to protect and restore voting rights across the country, judith brown and dale ho of the . so nice to have you here. judith, in this past year this tidal wave, is there any hope congress will come could up with a new formula to stem this tide? the problem is the voting rights act really served as a deterrent, so that s what opened the floodgates and so now we re in this moment are where this bipartisan effort has to happen, right? we have a dysfunctional congress. but talt this is the voting rights act. next year marks the 50th anniversary of the passage of the voting rights act.
is that it, dale? is that the bottom line? i really think it is, actually, chris. you look at florida, which got rid of six days of early voting before the 2012 election. and they experienced the longest wait times of any state in the country during that election. some people casting ballots after the president s acceptance speech there was one estimate from an engineer at ohio state university who calculated that 200,000 people gave up because the lines were too long in florida. i don t know why any state would think that that would be a model that they would want to emulate in future elections. it makes absolutely no sense. everyone ought to be able to participate in our democracy. it shouldn t matter whether or not you work hourly wage jobs that make it hard for you to vote on election day. well, judith, in south africa back this the bad old days, they worried about an ultimate race war. the whites will be in the lager. is this the lager? is this the demographic change? its
advancement project, which judith is the head of in places like north carolina. and you can bet that we re going to take this fight to other states that continue to cut back voting opportunities. well, i could say as a lover of politics, the great political leaders of our country in both parties over the years have trusted the voter. they re not afraid of the voters. that s how you can tell a great leader. thank you, dale ho and judith. everything is going green. st. paddy s day. we re going to talk about why so many irish in this country have gotten into politics. this is hardball, the place for it. we ll be right back. or how ornate the halls are. it doesn t matter if there are granite statues, or big mahogany desks. when working with an investment firm, what s really important is whether the people behind the desks actually stand behind what they say. introducing the schwab accountability guarantee. if you re not happy with one of our participating investment advisory services