Renew Voting Rights Act.

Byline: The Register-Guard

President Bush has wisely decided to end his boycott of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization.

If Bush addresses the group's annual national convention in Washington, D.C., as expected, on Thursday, he should voice his unqualified support for renewal of key provisions of the Voting Rights Act, which some conservatives are opposing in the U.S. Senate.

Much progress has been made over the past four decades, but the 1965 civil rights law remains this nation's most effective tool against discrimination at the ballot box. "No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any state or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color," it states.

In his speech to the NAACP, Bush should note that the U.S. Department of Justice has had to invoke the Voting Rights Act hundreds of times since it was last reauthorized in 1982 to block voting procedural changes designed to discriminate against minority citizens.

Renewing the act should have been a no-brainer for Congress. Yet conservative lawmakers delayed approval in the House, citing Section 5's references to racism in the South. While the "new South" is indeed far different than it was when the Voting Rights Act was approved, the states designated in Section 5 still generate hundreds of cases of racial and ethnic bias in voting procedures - more than enough to justify extending federal supervision over changes in election procedures for another 25 years.

Some lawmakers, caught up in the more-heat-than-light debate over this nation's immigration policies, also have challenged Section 203, which requires bilingual ballots in any district with a significant minority of voters who are Latinos, American Indians, Asian Americans or Alaska natives.

Many new citizens lack sufficient English skills to understand even moderately complex ballot questions, and elderly immigrants can become citizens without learning any English. For some native peoples, English remains a second language. Section 203 should remain intact.

Bush should acknowledge that the Voting Rights Act's protections remain as relevant as they were when another president, Lyndon Johnson, urged Congress to pass it.

Bush might even consider quoting Johnson's eloquent plea to lawmakers: "I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy. Rarely are we met with a challenge, not to our growth or abundance, or our welfare or our security, but rather to the values and purpose and the meaning of our beloved nation."

That challenge has not faded.