In the 41 years since Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, this nation has undergone a dramatic political transformation. From California to New York, from Virginia to Florida, black men and women have won election to political offices, including prestigious statewide posts.

Given that progress, some politicians and social observers say, the Voting Rights Act has outlived its usefulness. It's time to let it die, they say.

Many of their arguments are rational and persuasive. They point out that Democrats and Republicans have both misused the VRA to protect incumbents. Southern legislatures draw political boundaries that pack voters of color into awkwardly designed districts. Given the continuing tendency of voters to favor their own ethnic or racial group, that process usually ensures the election of a black candidate, almost always a Democrat. The same process leaves nearby districts overwhelmingly white, ensuring the election of a white Republican.

Others argue it's unfair to pick on the Deep South because of discriminatory practices they say ended long ago. They are especially incensed by Section 5, which requires several Southern states to get permission from the Justice Department before they change any voting process.

Last week, two Republican congressmen from Georgia, Lynn Westmoreland and Charlie Norwood, used arguments about unfairness to persuade their GOP colleagues to put off a vote on extending the act; parts of it will expire next year without congressional action. "Singling out certain states for special scrutiny no longer makes sense," Westmoreland said.

I wish I could side with Westmoreland. I'd like to believe that this country has made enough racial progress to drop special protections for voters of color.

I'd readily trade the Voting Rights Act for a system wherein an independent commission --- rather the reigning political party --- draws districts, so they aren't shaped like balloon animals on acid. Many voting rights scholars say the VRA does not currently permit, however, sanely shaped districts because it practically requires that black voters be lumped together to increase their political strength. Unfortunately, such districts also promote highly partisan, extremist politics.

But a year ago, the GOP-dominated Georgia Legislature reminded me why the VRA remains a necessary protection for voters of color. Georgia Republicans rammed through a divisive requirement for state-issued photo ID at the polls, the most restrictive voting law in the nation. While Republicans claimed they wanted only to protect against voter fraud, that contention wears not one stitch of credibility. There is much more fraud in the use of absentee ballots, but the Legislature loosened the laws governing those.

What Georgia Republicans really wanted to do was bar a small group of voters who tend to be rural, isolated, poor and predominantly black. According to many studies, those voters are less likely to own a car and, therefore, less likely to have a driver's license. They are also more likely to vote for Democrats. They may be a small group, but they'd make a difference in close races. For years, Republicans have used similar strategies around the country, trying to bar voting by small numbers of Latinos, blacks and native Americans, all of whom are more likely to support Democrats.

(Section 5 didn't protect Georgia's black voters from this bit of harassment; President Bush's highly partisan Justice Department approved the state's restrictive voter ID law. But Section 5 is still one necessary tool among many, including the federal courts. It might be more fairly used by a future Justice Department.)

Is the voter ID law racist or merely partisan? It's unlikely that Republicans would have passed it if black Georgians were faithful GOP voters. But that hardly matters. In a new book, "Stealing Democracy: The New Politics of Voter Suppression," George Washington University law professor Spencer Overton writes:

"The different voting patterns of many people of color give politicians the motive to suppress their votes, and the unique physical and socioeconomic traits that characterize people of color make them particularly vulnerable." In other words, a race-conscious remedy is still needed.

Perhaps in another 25 years, voters of color will no longer be vulnerable to attempts to limit their franchise. Or, even better, perhaps all politicians will reject un-American tactics that try to keep certain voters from the ballot box.

But that day has not yet arrived. So Congress must extend the Voting Rights Act.