Proposed Constitutional Amendment on Voting Rights

 K. Sabeel Rahman has an opinion piece at CNN:

We can imagine a very different 14th Amendment, one that provides a stronger foundation for racial equity and an inclusive democracy. We need a new Right to Vote Amendment, one that codifies a comprehensive vision for ensuring voting rights. As Demos has outlined in a recent report, a new Right to Vote Amendment should cover five key areas.

First, it should protect the franchise, constitutionalizing automatic and same-day voter registration, and barring practices that have the effect of denying or diluting the voting rights of Black and brown communities in particular, and of historically disenfranchised communities more broadly. The kind of alleged machinations that Gov. Kemp deployed in 2018, for example, to block voters of color in particular, would no longer be possible.

Second, it should expand the reach of voting rights by finally ending the practice of penal disenfranchisement, ratifying (and protecting from backlash) the push by advocates in states like Florida to restore the voting rights of Americans with felony convictions, while also putting a stop to unfair partisan gerrymandering.

Third, an expansive Right to Vote Amendment must rollback the outsized political power of wealthy donors and corporations by ending the wrongheaded constitutional sanction for unlimited campaign contributions following the Supreme Court's rulings in cases like Buckley v. Valeo in 1976 and Citizens United in 2010.

Fourth, an inclusive democracy and expansive right to vote requires undoing the systemic defense of White political dominance by ending the Electoral College, ensuring the president and vice president are both directly elected by the people, securing statehood for the District of Columbia, and finally guaranteeing the sovereignty and self-determination of political status to Puerto Rico and the people of other US territories.

Fifth, and finally, any Right to Vote Amendment must provide Congress with broad and affirmative powers (and judicial deference) to enforce these provisions -- including by establishing federal election administration standards and constitutionalizing the power to require preclearance procedures of the sort codified by the Voting Rights Act of 1965.