New York's governor signed a law Monday intended to prevent local officials from enacting rules that might suppress people's voting rights because of their race.
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The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act, named after the late civil rights activist who represented Georgia in the US House, makes New York one of the first states to bring back a version of a process known as "preclearance" that was gutted by a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2013.
Under the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, states and counties with a record of suppressing the rights of Black voters once had to seek US Justice Department approval before changing voting rules.
The court's ending of that practice, on the grounds that federal oversight was no longer needed, helped clear the way for multiple states to enact new rules around voting in recent years.
