House rejects changes to Voting Rights Act (AP)

WASHINGTON - The House voted Thursday to renew the 1965 Voting Rights Act, rejecting efforts by Southern conservatives to relax federal oversight of their states in a debate haunted by the ghosts of the civil rights movement. The 390-33 vote sent to the Senate a bill that represented a Republican appeal to minority voters who doubt the GOP's "big-tent" image. All of the "no" votes came from Republicans, in defiance of their own leaders. "The liberties and freedom embedded in the right to vote must ...