Speaking at a reception at the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday in honor of Black History Month, Vice President Joe Biden expressed a strong desire to see Congress revise the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was partially gutted by the Supreme Court in 2013, and said that "hatred" explains the controversial voter ID laws that have arisen in states in the American South.
Referring to those who support voter ID laws, Biden said, "These guys never go away. Hatred never, never goes away."
"The zealotry of those who wish to limit the franchise cannot be smothered by reason," Biden added.
The Justice Department has sued North Carolina and Texas to thwart attempts to impose voter ID laws on their residents. The Department argues that such laws disproportionately harm minority voters, as well as the elderly and the poor.
Of the DOJ's suits as well as the larger struggle in America for equal voting rights for all, Biden said, "This fight has been too long, this fight has been too hard, to do anything other than win — not on the margins, but flat out win."
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