By KATHY CASTOR, Published in the Tampa Tribune
Published: Jun 28, 2006

The landmark Voting Rights Act guarantees the right to vote to each American citizen and outlaws discriminatory practices
in elections. The act is due for reauthorization by the U.S. Congress. Up until last week, the measure was on track for
bipartisan approval this session. In an inexplicable turn of events, a handful of members within the Republican Conference
derailed the impending vote.

This about-face impacts Hillsborough County because it is one of five Florida counties governed by specific oversight
provisions of the Voting Rights Act because of past problems ensuring equal access and opportunity for all. Indeed, thanks
to the Voting Rights Act, county elections officials, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and
the Justice Department routinely review reapportionment plans, absentee ballot changes and statutory revisions that
impact ballot fairness.

Our community, therefore, has a responsibility to take the lead in the fight against those who say this law places an unnecessary burden on our elections. There can never be too much scrutiny on our electoral process. We must ensure that every person has the right to vote and that each person's vote counts equally.

Georgia Congressman John Lewis noted last week that he was particularly dismayed that some of the opponents hailed from Georgia, "where just last year the Georgia Legislature authored a redistricting plan that severely diluted the power of the African American vote &hellip [and which] received over 80 objections from the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice since the last reauthorization, pointing to discriminatory voting plans agreed to by state, county, and local governments.  To every Member who has looked at the overwhelming evidence, it is clear that we have come a great distance, but we still have a great distance to go before we can lay down the burden of voting discrimination in America."

Today voter disenfranchisement has shifted from overt acts of discrimination such as poll taxes and literacy tests to more
subtle tactics of targeted reapportionment, voter ID cards and nonrestoration of voting rights. To ensure that all of our neighbors have equal access to vote, the oversight provided by the Voting Rights Act must remain.

In 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson announced the Voting Rights Act, he stated that it is really all of us who must
overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. So too, it is all of us who must urge Congress - in a united and bipartisan fashion - to move quickly to reauthorize the important Voting Rights Act.

Hillsborough County Commissioner Kathy Castor is a Democrat running for Congress.