Voting is one of the most cherished of our birthrights as American citizens.
On November 6th of last year, in recognition of the significant contribution that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 had made in protecting the voting rights of minority citizens, I called for a 10-year extension of that law. No previous extension had been as long. I also asked that the bilingual provision in the law be extended so that it is concurrent with the other special provisions of the act. The matter is now before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has held extensive hearings and is preparing to report out a bill to the floor of the Senate. There appears to be nearly unanimous support in the committee for some form of extension.