President Obama will mark the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act Thursday by calling on Congress to restore the law and urging people to register to vote.

“Fifty years ago today, the Voting Rights Act confirmed the universal right to vote as a bedrock principle in this country”.

Obama pointed to battles at the state and local level, where voting rights groups challenge voter identification laws. For too long, we used race, background, education and more to keep many Americans away from the polls. But, a major portion of the Act was removed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013.

The NASS Elections Committee is dedicated to educating and informing members about state election administration practices and laws, as well as tracking proposed federal legislation and the activities of other federal government entities.

That measure, one of the most popular and effective civil rights laws in American history, was effectively hollowed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013.

In short order, nineteen states passed laws requiring voters to show identification at the polls. “Texas should heed the admonishment of three courts, abandon their discriminatory law, and start working to make sure Texas voters can make their voices heard”, Myrna Perez, deputy director of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, said in a statement.

“The fact of the matter is that far more people disenfranchise themselves than any law does by not participating, by not getting involved”, Obama said. “That’s why League of Women Voters nationally, statewide and locally list as one of our guidelines that we always support the right of all citizens to vote and encourage all citizens to vote”, said Pat L. Netzer-Willard, president of the League of Women Voters of the Bartlesville Area.

“The landmark VRA came just months after civil rights activists endured injury and indignity during the Bloody Sunday march for voting rights from Selma, Alabama to the state capital of Montgomery”.

“We can not call ourselves a true democracy until everyone is guaranteed access to his or her constitutional right to vote”.

Like the high court, those of differing political points of view reacted predictably, with Republicans viewing it as proof of the law’s effectiveness in removing discrimination, and Democrats bemoaning its erosion.