As community leaders fight to protect voting rights, lawmakers advance bills that threaten to erase them. The Power Coalition for Equity and Justice and the Legal Defense Fund stood with hundreds of citizens from every corner of the state on the steps of the Louisiana Capitol, to announce the Louisiana Voting Rights Act (LAVRA). Filed as SB 365 by state Rep. Royce Duplessis (D-New Orleans), the LAVRA is designed to do what Louisiana has failed to do for generations: protect voters  from discrimination that is not just historical, but still ongoing. The bill is a long-overdue safeguard in a state where voting rights have been chipped away session after session. While community members gathered to support this protective legislation, lawmakers inside the building were advancing a very different agenda. The same Legislature that can expand protections for voters is simultaneously pushing a slate of bills that would make it harder...

BATON ROUGE — A state lawmaker and others gathered outside the Capitol on Wednesday to tout the introduction of a bill that they say will protect voting rights for Black voters and other people of color. Senate Bill 365 would create the Louisiana Voting Rights Act. The bill was prefiled prior to this year’s session and referred to the Committee on Senate and Governmental Affairs. It has not been scheduled for consideration. A statement from the bill’s supporters say they fear efforts, including polling site closures in Black neighborhoods, gerrymandering and a current effort at the national level to require additional identification from potential voters before they are given a ballot, make it harder to vote. “A state Voting Rights Act is how Louisiana decides whether we are a democracy for everyone, or only for a few,” said Ashley Shelton, the president of the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice. “At...

BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — Groups are voicing their support for a proposed bill that would create the Louisiana Voting Rights Act as the U.S. awaits a Supreme Court ruling that could change the election landscape.  The Power Coalition for Equity and Justice and its partners hosted a press conference at the Louisiana State Capitol at 11 a.m. Wednesday. If passed, the Louisiana Voting Rights Act would create new safeguards to protect access to the ballot, prevent voter discrimination, and ensure equal participation in elections. “We’re here today because democracy is not self-executed. It must be protected. It takes action. And the right to vote, as it was said earlier, is not just another right. It’s a right that protects other rights, and in Louisiana, know this truth with access to the ballot is threatened, our communities are the ones who feel it first,” State Sen. Royce Duplessis (D-New Orleans), the...