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22 <br /> 1 The United States Department of Justice's data indicates that from 1982 to 2006, 750 Section 5 <br /> 2 preclearance objections blocked approximately 2,400 discriminatory voting changes. Over half <br /> 3 blocked more than 400 cases with specific evidence of intentional discrimination. Section 5 also <br /> 4 deterred more than 205 voting changes were withdrawn after the Department of Justice <br /> 5 requested additional information. The Department of Justice brought 650 successful lawsuits <br /> 6 under Section 2 of the Voting Right Act in covered jurisdictions. <br /> 7 <br /> 8 Since Shelby v. Holder, many states have adopted restrictive voting laws that impact <br /> 9 communities of color. These restrictions such as strict photo ID requirements, limitation on who <br /> 10 can provide assistance in polling places, the curbing on early voting days, and closing of polling <br /> 11 places has had the effect of suppressing the votes of people of color. Other measures include <br /> 12 purging of voter rolls and drawing election districts to dilute the power of and influence of people <br /> 13 of color. <br /> 14 <br /> 15 RES-2020-051 <br /> 16 ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br /> 17 RESOLUTION <br /> 18 Celebrating the 55t" Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act <br /> 19 <br /> 20 WHEREAS, on February 26, 1869, the United States Congress passed the Fifteenth <br /> 21 Amendment to the United States Constitution and subsequently ratified the Amendment on <br /> 22 February 3, 1870, to grant African American men the right to vote; and <br /> 23 <br /> 24 WHEREAS, African American males exercised the franchise and held political offices in many <br /> 25 states, particularly Southern states, throughout the 1880s; and <br /> 26 <br /> 27 WHEREAS, in the 1890s, literacy tests, grandfather clauses and other devices to <br /> 28 disenfranchise African American men were written into the constitutions of former Confederate <br /> 29 states; and <br /> 30 <br /> 31 WHEREAS, with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, African American women were <br /> 32 granted the right to vote along with white women; and <br /> 33 <br /> 34 WHEREAS, African Americans who attempted to register to vote experienced harassment, <br /> 35 intimidation, economic reprisals, physical violence and murder, including by lynching; and <br /> 36 <br /> 37 WHEREAS, African American men and women nevertheless sought to secure their right to vote <br /> 38 through such organizations as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People <br /> 39 and the National Urban League, as well as through the efforts of people such as A. Philip <br /> 40 Randolph, W. E. B. Dubois, Booker T. Washington, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker and Septima <br /> 41 Clark; and <br /> 42 <br /> 43 WHEREAS, in the 196os, the widely broadcast irreprehensible violence against demonstrators <br /> 44 brought heightened attention to the issue of voting rights— including the murders of Chaney, <br /> 45 Goodman and Schwerner on June 21, 1964, and the attack on March 7, 1965, known as Bloody <br /> 46 Sunday; and <br /> 47 <br /> 48 WHEREAS, on August 6, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, an <br /> 49 "act to enforce the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution," ninety-five years after it had been <br /> 50 ratified; and <br /> 51 <br />