DENVER — Evoking apartheid-era voting restrictions and warning of a dire end for America's democracy, Senate Democrats on Tuesday passed a resolution urging Congress to pass comprehensive voting rights legislation to counteract actions by several states they believe have made it more difficult for voters to cast a ballot.
House Democrats replicated the Senate's action soon after.
“We have never seen a more dangerous attack on our democracy in modern times than what we have seen in the last two years,” Senate Majority Leader Stephen Fenberg, D-Boulder, said.
Sen. Chris Hansen, D-Denver, recounted his time in South Africa shortly after the county began dismantling the apartheid regime and effectively framed America's debate on voting rights legislation as a choice between learning the lessons of the African nation’s history or embracing its worst manifestations.
"The top priority for the apartheid government was to restrict the right to vote,” he said, arguing that America’s experiment in representative democracy will not survive if Congress doesn't act to reverse state laws that he said restrict people's ability to access the ballot box.
>9NEWS readers can view the full story at Colorado Politics.