Members of Allegheny County Council will discuss whether to throw their support behind adding a right-to-vote amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
At the conclusion of Tuesday night's council meeting, council President John DeFazio, D-Shaler, introduced a resolution that he said fellow Democrat Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald also supported.
The proposed resolution says that Allegheny County supports efforts in the U.S. Congress to add the right to vote as a constitutional amendment.
"It's more or less, it's talking about giving everybody the right to vote, the same opportunities," Mr. DeFazio said in an interview Wednesday. He described it as a nonpartisan amendment.
Pittsburgh City Council is expected to consider a similar resolution.
Mr. DeFazio and Mr. Fitzgerald as well as Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and city Councilman Ricky Burgess on Monday attended a news conference here with the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., which focused on supporting the proposed amendment.
Rev. Jackson is campaigning to promote the right-to-vote amendment supported by House Joint Resolution 44 from U.S. Reps. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., and Keith Ellison, D-Minn.
The movement to enact the amendment follows controversial voter identification laws passed in some states, including a Pennsylvania one that a judge ruled unconstitutional. Rev. Jackson also has visited Cincinnati to build support for the proposed resolution.
The county council resolution will be discussed at a meeting of council's government reform committee, which Mr. DeFazio said might meet next week. If it receives approval there, it can return to the full council for a final vote.
Of course, a county council resolution has no binding influence on actions of the U.S. Congress or on the country's 50 states, whose legislatures each would have to consider such an amendment before it could be added to the U.S. Constitution.
If it passes, copies of Allegheny County's resolution would be sent to President Barack Obama, House Speaker John Boehner and the majority and minority leaders of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
First Published: September 11, 2014, 4:00 a.m.
