Murkowski Becomes First GOP Senator To Co-Sponsor Dem Voting Rights Act Bill

From left, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R) Alaska, and Republican candidate Joe Miller laugh during a political debate Tuesday, Oct 26, 2010 in Anchorage, Alaska. Murkowski is running a write-in campaign following her l... From left, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R) Alaska, and Republican candidate Joe Miller laugh during a political debate Tuesday, Oct 26, 2010 in Anchorage, Alaska. Murkowski is running a write-in campaign following her loss in the primary to Miller. (AP Photo / Michael Dinneen) MORE LESS
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Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) became the first Republican senator to sign on to Senate Democrats’ legislation to restore a piece of the Voting Rights Act, The Nation’s Ari Berman noted Thursday.

The bill addresses the Supreme Court’s 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision, which gutted a provision of the Voting Rights Act that required certain states and localities to get changes to their voting laws pre-approved by the federal government. Called the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015, the proposal would bring back those requirement for states and localities that have had certain number of voting rights violations in a given period.

As University of California, Irvine law professor Rick Hasen noted on his election law blog, the Democrats began pushing the Senate legislation after a weaker House version with some Republicans’ support failed to gain traction.

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  1. DimS SHOuldN"T have THE RIGHt to VOTe. UNLess THE VOte REPublican.

  2. Avatar for chammy chammy says:

    Well good for you Lisa. You are one of the dying breed republicans with common sense.

  3. She actually shows occasional flashes of decency and common sense. No wonder she was teabagged out in a primary. Too bad for them she won anyway as a write-in candidate (which is very hard to do and shows how crazy the bagger was).

  4. This might just be able to pass. I see the entire Democratic Caucus holding strong on this one, even Manchin, and there are several Republicans who need to at least appear to be a little less partisan as they head into their 2016 reelection. If it makes it out of the Senate, I can see Boehner actually taking this up as he heads out the door.

  5. And I think that crazy bagger is sitting to her immediate left in the photo.

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