0 i have a theory or two why republicans might want to restrict the franchise for the people you named. congressman marc veasey of texas. thank you for joining us. joining me at the table, julie fernandes. now a senior policy analyst with the open society institute. i did not know what section three of the voting rights act was until today. i consider myself a little bit of a voting rights act buff. what is section 3? what is the federal government doing here? why do they have the authority to do it? section 3 is the provision in the voting rights act that has been there since 1965. it allows federal courts to order certain jurisdictions, the preclearance obligations if they feel that organization is engaged in to walk people through this, you have this map that is covered by section 5 which is preclearance, right? correct. section 4 is the part of the act that draws the map. these are the places, you have to two to the federal government and be like, is this cool we do this?