Is U.S. voting set to change forever?
5/6/202627 min
The race is on to redraw U.S. electoral districts after a landmark Supreme Court ruling last week on the Voting Rights Act. The court neutralized a longstanding piece of the voting rights legislation — a change that could have huge consequences for future U.S. election results.
The 1965 Act was designed to ensure African American representation in Congress, but in a 6-3 decision, the top court ruled that a congressional map in Louisiana was unconstitutional because the state gave too much consideration to race when drawing up its voting districts.
Following the court ruling, many states began redrawing existing electoral maps, with Florida passing a gerrymandered map giving Republicans more of an advantage in the state just hours after the Supreme Court decision was released.
CBC Washington correspondents Paul Hunter, Katie Simpson and Willy Lowry unpack what the ruling could mean for U.S. politics.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
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Willy Lowry· Host0:29
[upbeat music] This is a CBC podcast. Katie, Paul, I wanna kick things off with a quick word association game, okay? So I'm gonna name a few words that some people are using to describe a recent event here in the US, and I wanna see if you can figure out what I'm talking about.
Paul Hunter· Host0:48
Sounds fun.
Willy Lowry· Host0:49
All right. You ready?
Katie Simpson· Host0:50
Yep.
Paul Hunter· Host0:50
Nope.
Willy Lowry· Host0:50
[laughs] Go. Erased, eviscerated, demolished, gutted. What do you think we are referring to here?
Paul Hunter· Host0:58
The soul of every fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs?
Katie Simpson· Host1:01
[laughs] I was just gonna say... No, I was gonna say my soul, [laughs] my soul in this moment.
Paul Hunter· Host1:05
The facade, the, the nameplate at the Kennedy Center?
Willy Lowry· Host1:08
Perhaps the feeling of Lightnings fan.
Katie Simpson· Host1:10
I, you know, uh, it, it... in this moment in America, honest to goodness, it could be absolutely anything.
Willy Lowry· Host1:17
In fact, these are words to describe something far more serious. Uh, these are words that have been used to describe what's happened to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Paul Hunter· Host1:27
Indeed. Last week, the Supreme Court, the US