All Americans are entitled to vote

All Americans are entitled to vote

Shelby County, Alabama, is arguing before the United States Supreme Court that the need no longer exists for voter protection provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Justice Antonin Scalia decried the continuation of the act because it would encourage the “perpetuation of racial entitlement.”

The Voting Rights Act is, by design, a “perpetuation of racial entitlement”! That “entitlement” is the right to vote and must be perpetuated. We need only to remember the last two national elections. There were newly instituted voter ID requirements, incidents of misleading election information, and voters standing in voting lines for as many as 10 hours.

These are only a few of the efforts in some states, many of which are targeted in the Voting Rights Act, to suppress the vote of certain racial minorities. This is wrong. Every eligible American should be entitled to register and cast his/her vote easily.

The Voting Rights Act does “perpetuate racial entitlement.” It perpetuates the right to vote regardless of race. That is its purpose, and it’s the right thing to do in America. The Supreme Court should agree with Scalia and extend the Voting Rights Act.

Karen Wagner

Rolling Meadows