Rep. Cooper pushes for 'right to vote' constitutional amendment

Friday, May 3, 2013

photo Sanford Myers / File / The Tennessean U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper cited new barriers to voting.

NASHVILLE - Convinced that the right to vote for all citizens isn't fully protected under law, U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, is planning a long-shot proposal to add a 28th amendment to the United States Constitution.

"What it would do is grant, for the first time in American history, a constitutional right to vote," Cooper said Wednesday after announcing the proposal at a Nashville Bar Association luncheon during a strikingly personal speech that evoked race, discrimination and equality.

"Many people think we have this already," he said. "We do not. Some states have a right to vote. But we do not have it nationwide."

Read more at Knoxnews.com.