U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell represents Alabama's 7th congressional district.

By U.S. Representative Terri Sewell, who represents the Alabama's Seventh Congressional District

There may be three weeks left until the so-called "SEC primary," but next door in Georgia, ballots are already being cast. The same will be true in Tennessee tomorrow. In Louisiana, voters can make their choices known next week.

Each of these states has adopted early voting, which boosts voter turnout and gives voters flexibility over when they can go to the voting booth. Yet Alabama remains behind the curve. I'll have to wait until March 1 to vote for Hillary Clinton, but I'll do so proudly, because she has a plan to ensure states like Alabama expand, not restrict, individuals' voting rights.

Sadly, it isn't surprising that our state has not adopted this commonsense measure. Once the Supreme Court ripped the heart out of the Voting Rights Act, Alabama Republicans wasted no time in pairing one of the nation's strictest state voter photo ID laws with the closure of 31 driver's license offices in predominately African American neighborhoods. This had the combined effect of disenfranchising an entire community, and I immediately called for the Department of Justice to investigate this decision.

Ultimately, the state agreed to reopen the closed driver's license offices, but only in the face of pressure from my office, and after Hillary Clinton visited Hoover and drew national attention to what she called a "blast from the Jim Crow past."

And though we've made progress, we have to keep fighting. While these offices remain open today, access is limited to just one day a month. It is further proof that Alabama's Republican leadership will only do the bare minimum they can get away with.

The hard truth is that this country has a legacy of racism that still persists to this day. It's a problem that Congress must address. That's why I have authored a bipartisan bill, the Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore the pre-clearance protections that the Supreme Court stripped away. And going forward, we must recognize that in places with historically problematic patterns of discrimination, more federal oversight is still needed.

That's why I believe this upcoming election is so important. We know the Republicans won't lift a finger to address this problem - after all, some of them even helped create it. Instead, we need a candidate who will not only recognize these injustices, but follow the lead of President Obama and Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch in standing against them wherever they occur.

In my view, only Hillary Clinton has a record of waging these fights. She understands that when it suddenly becomes harder for certain groups of people to vote - it's never by accident, and it has to be forcefully addressed.

To make sure that voting rights are protected, Hillary has a comprehensive plan that makes it easier to vote. She would make voter registration universal and automatic at the age of 18 and enact nationwide early voting.

This is an idea that's long overdue in Alabama. In addition to Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama, 34 other states now allow early voting. Fortunately, online registration is finally available to Alabamians. And Democrats in our state legislature have included a six-day early voting period in their agenda, which would let voters cast their ballots at county courthouses at their convenience. Hillary joins me in supporting their efforts, but her proposals would go even further, instituting a nationwide 20-day early voting period.

In her dissent in the Supreme Court's ruling, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg likened the Court's actions to "throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you're not getting wet." She was right. African American voters in Alabama are getting soaked. We need a president like Hillary to pick up where Barack Obama leaves off, who will never stop fighting for a brighter future - with clearer skies, and where every vote counts.