CONTACT: Daniel Cohen, daniel.cohen@cp1.hctx.net, (832) 921-0097
Commissioners Court Adopts Ellis Resolution Defending Voting Rights, Fair Representation in Harris County
Resolution condemns Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act as Southern states rush to disenfranchise communities of color
HARRIS COUNTY — Harris County Commissioners Court today adopted a resolution introduced by Commissioner Rodney Ellis recognizing the historic significance of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and reaffirming Harris County’s commitment to safeguarding the right to vote in free and fair elections.
The resolution comes as states across the South rush to purge Black representation, eliminating majority-Black congressional districts and disrupting elections in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s April 29 decision in Louisiana v. Callais.
“The Voting Rights Act was one of the most important civil rights laws ever passed because it enforced the promise that Black Americans and other communities of color have an equal voice in our democracy. Today, those protections are being dismantled in plain sight.
"Extremists could not stop minority political participation outright, so they’re diluting minority political power instead. Their tactics may look different than they did during Jim Crow, but the goal is the same: preserving power for some by limiting it for others.
"Today’s racist redistricting schemes are the modern descendants of poll taxes, literacy tests, and racial intimidation designed to silence communities of color.
"Harris County is drawing a line. We will continue defending the freedom to vote, protecting fair representation, and standing up against efforts to make some voices count less than others.”
Last month’s Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais effectively dismantled Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, making it harder for voters to challenge maps that dilute Black voting power. The decision is the latest blow to the landmark civil rights law in a series of rulings that have steadily eroded voting protections.
Signed into law in 1965, the Voting Rights Act enforced the 15th Amendment’s guarantee that the right to vote cannot be denied based on race and expanded opportunities for communities of color to meaningfully participate in the political process.
In the wake of Callais, states including Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Florida have targeted majority-Black districts by cracking and packing communities of color across multiple districts to dilute their voting power.
In Texas, where people of color accounted for 95 percent of recent population growth, lawmakers last year redrew congressional maps to eliminate two of the state’s four majority-Black districts, including the historic 18th Congressional District in Houston.
Today’s resolution also calls on Congress to pass legislation restoring and strengthening the Voting Rights Act and advancing equal access to the ballot box for all Americans.
WHEREAS, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) was signed into law on August 6, 1965, by President Lyndon B. Johnson, prohibiting racial discrimination in voting and marking a landmark achievement for the civil rights movement and a watershed moment for our country; and
WHEREAS, the VRA and its subsequent reauthorizations established critical voting rights protections, outlawed literacy tests, and brought an end to poll taxes and other Jim Crow-era voting procedures passed by state legislatures—particularly in the south—to disenfranchise Black voters, Latino voters, Asian voters and others; and
WHEREAS, nearly 100 years after the 14th and 15th Amendments were passed, the VRA enforced the voting rights they guaranteed. The 14th Amendment, granted equal protection and citizenship to all persons "born or naturalized in the United States," including formerly enslaved people. The 15th Amendment, established that the “right to vote shall not be denied or abridged on the basis of race, color or previous condition of servitude”; and
WHEREAS, the VRA was won because fearless civil rights activists and leaders, led by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., despite facing violence and intimidation, risked life and liberty to advance the freedom to vote for all people. The VRA has been called the single most “effective piece of civil rights legislation ever passed by Congress,” that led to increased voter registration, electoral participation, and representation by people of color; protected language access and assistance at the polls; and built a more inclusive and representative democracy; and
WHEREAS, the VRA has been reauthorized by Congress five times, most recently in 2006 with strong bipartisan support. Upon signing the reauthorization, President George W. Bush said that the VRA “broke the segregationist lock on the ballot box.” Seven years later, it was gutted by the Supreme Court’s 2013 Shelby decision, which stripped the act of essential preclearance safeguards, paving the way for states to pass restrictive voting laws; and
WHEREAS, Texas has the largest Black population of any state, the second-largest Latino population, and the third-largest Asian American and Pacific Islander population. The Brennan Center reports that since Shelby, the “gaps between turnout rates for white voters and voters of color have grown,” and that Texas had a higher turnout gap between white and Black voters in 2020 than at any other point in the previous 24 years; and
WHEREAS, the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision on April 29, 2026, struck a blow to the VRA’s Section 2, making it easier to dilute voting power and disenfranchise voters of color and harder to challenge racially discriminatory maps and voting laws; and
WHEREAS, sixty-one years of progress are being swiftly undone in the wake of Callais, with several southern states wasting no time upending, suspending, and postponing their primary elections to target and eliminate Black and Latino-majority congressional districts through rapid and unprecedented redistricting efforts—even when, in some cases, ballots have already been cast; and
WHEREAS, the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a call to action to protect and advance voting rights for all people, uphold the 14th and 15th Amendments, remove barriers to equal democratic participation, and strengthen our democracy; and
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that Harris County condemns all forms of discrimination in our democracy, affirms its duty to uphold the Constitution, and commits to defending voting rights and ensuring fair access to the ballot box at the local level. Furthermore, Harris County calls on Congress to pass legislation that revitalizes the Voting Rights Act, advances the freedom to vote for all people, safeguards fair representation, and protects our democracy now and for future generations.