Representative Marcia Fudge is leading a new effort to improve voting rights in America.
The 11th District Democrat is the chairwoman of a subcommittee on elections that Democrats brought back this year, after Republicans had disbanded it.
- Fudge is chair of revived House Administration Subcommittee on Elections
- Group to issue report on ongoing discrimination
- Subcommittee is on six-state listening tour
Fudge is taking the committee on a listening tour to six states, including Ohio, to hear testimony from local experts about how the country is falling short in giving all eligible Americans the opportunity to vote.
The tour first stopped in Brownsville, Texas about two weeks ago and was in Atlanta, Georgia on Tuesday.
Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams testified at the Atlanta event.
In a recent interview with Spectrum, Fudge said that the subcommittee will put together a report that will highlight ongoing voter discrimination; and she said Ohio is front and center in the debate.
“Because what I know is, what is happening is that people no longer have the unfettered right to vote in this country,” Fudge said.
She added: “You take Ohio. We change the rules every single election, sometimes from primary to general. The days you can vote; the days you can’t. The times you can vote; the times you can’t. I live in a county with over a million people. There is one early voting site. One! And it’s the Board of Elections. Maybe there are 30 parking spaces. Why do you think a county of a million-plus people can vote at one early voting site?”
A 2013 Supreme Court decision in the case Shelby County v. Holder did away with a rule that certain states had to get permission to change their voting laws because of a history of discrimination.
Fudge said the subcommittee’s main goal is to convince Congress to put together a new coverage formula, so a clearance system is back in place.
The subcommittee will also hold hearings in Florida, North Carolina, North Dakota and Ohio.