Speech #940066390

Not only must citizens be able to practically exercise this right to vote. however. they must also be able to do so intelligently. The 1975 Voter Rights Act extension helps insure that citizens can as a practical matter vote and that they will have the strongest opportunity to vote as informed citizens. The 1975 act forever bans the prime tool of State discriminationthe literacy test. The act recognizes that education for minorities and for Anglos has been marked by unequal opportunity and that literacy tests given by many of our States after they have failed in their duty to adequately educate all their citizens has saved to perpetuate a racially discriminatory system. The literacy test clearly acts as an overt barrier to voting for minorities. In this day and age when broadcast media are so pervasive and literacy tests are so susceptible to discriminatory abuses. it is obvious these tests do not constitute an accurate measure of an informed electorate. The Voting Rights Act extension also recognizes that those groups that are not able to read English are in effect discriminated against by the availability of Englishonly election materials. The act helps language minorities cast an effective ballot by providing for election material to be distributed in the minoritys language if a jurisdiction has a significant minority population and an acutely low voter turnout.