James T. Tucker: “Preserving the fundamental right to vote for all Americans is what brings us together in this hearing.”

It is ironic because all of us thought when the National Voter Registration Act was enacted in 1993 that this problem was resolved.

The U.S. has a duty to nurture civilian-led nonviolent democratic change at a time when it is, surely, in short global supply.

But like so much of these sorts of gains, they are fleeting and they can go away at the whim of an election official who just simply chooses not to follow the law.

First generation barriers are those that limit access to registration, casting a ballot, or having that ballot counted.