Section 5 of Voting Act needed to go

I’m not speaking figuratively, but literally, when I say one of the greatest gifts this nation has ever given me is the right to vote.

I immigrated to the United States from a country — apartheid-era South Africa — that refused to let me vote. Even though I hadn’t fought for the right in this country, like so many heroes living and lost, the first time I was able to vote was in this country. I treasure that legacy.

I wasn’t here during the civil rights era, when politicians, police and people viciously attacked those who demanded equal rights. When I was in South Africa, politicians, police and people viciously attacked those who demanded equal rights.

The concerns that inspired the protections of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 are no stranger to South Africans. No one should ever interfere with a citizen’s ability to vote. Nor should fraud be allowed to taint the process. South Africa’s fledgling democracy understood that. It’s why voter ID laws are crucial; even in South Africa, identification is required for voters.

Some activists continue to profess outrage over a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that affects a provision of the Voting Rights Act that required 16 jurisdictions in nine states (including Georgia) to seek federal pre-approval for any voting changes.

How onerous was it? As Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens noted before the Supreme Court ruled, under Section 5 of the law, “it’s just not elections for candidates. If a local government wants an election for a park bond, you have to get pre-clearance from the Justice Department.”

Until the court ruled, Section 5 had been renewed four times despite the progress and transparency accompanying the election process in the years after that era of painful, violent, systemic discrimination.

When the justices ruled it unconstitutional in 2013, they did not declare discrimination had ended. They said, in essence, that progress is evident, and it is time for the provision to apply to every state or to no state. A provision that was implemented to prevent discrimination had, over time, become discriminatory and an undue burden on a few states.

How far has America come since 1965? It’s not just that Americans elected — and re-elected — their first black president. The Census Bureau found that black voter turnout rates in 2012 exceeded that of whites for the first time.

How far has Georgia come? The minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives is an African-American woman. Atlanta and Augusta have African-American mayors. Columbus, Athens and Rome have female mayors; both Savannah and Albany elected mayors who are African-American women. Napoleon Jenkins, a black Republican, is the mayor in the Washington County town of Tenille, which is 56 percent African-American.

Discrimination is discrimination, no matter which side practices it. And placing tedious, unnecessary requirements on a few states is discriminatory. There comes a time to end the march along the path of victimhood and celebrate the level playing field.

Georgia and the other states that fell under Section 5 are light years from when the minority vote was deliberately undermined. There are real challenges to highlight in today’s Georgia – in education, the economy and civic engagement – that can advance citizens further than by tilting at windmills. Leaders should seize that opportunity and provide positive role models for minorities to aspire to, not victims to emulate.