If there’s anything Americans have learned in the past four years, it’s that elections matter—no matter how small they are.
The November 5th elections in Virginia are no exception. Not only are the right to a minimum wage and redistricting power up for grabs, but the state elections could also decide the fate of the Equal Rights Amendment , a constitutional amendment almost 100 years in the making.
According to The Alice Paul Institute, the ERA was introduced in Congress every year from 1923 to 1972 when it finally passed both houses of Congress. However, the ERA got stuck in the ratification process, which required that at least ¾ of all US states had to ratify the amendment before it could officially be added to the constitution.
The issue is that Virginia state Republicans have blocked all previous attempts to ratify the amendment. Currently, Republicans hold narrow majorities in the State Senate and General Assembly, which, in February 2019, was enough to vote down the amendment in a subcommittee without ever allowing it to get a full committee hearing.
Even after 38 states have ratified it, there’s still a complicated road ahead before the ERA can become law. While the 10-year deadline for ratification has passed, it is debatable how final this deadline is. The official ERA website outlines the wishy-washy process of amending the constitution, which is laid out in Article V of the Constitution and has been further developed through several court cases.
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