Voting Rights Act

I really hope that the fact that Bush and his fellow Republicans chose to renew the Voting Right Act one year early isn\’t lost on people. 

Why do it one year early?  Because it is an election year, and the Republicans desperately needs some good PR, especially with the \”minority\” voters.

But this got me thinking, why does this law need to be renewed?  Why isn\’t this permanent?

Wikipedia somewhat answers this:
U.S. citizens commonly hear of a \”right to vote,\” yet there is no such federal right. However, the Voting Rights Act and three constitutional amendments that prevent discrimination in granting the franchise have established in United States Supreme Court jurisprudence that there is a \”fundamental right\” in the franchise, even though voting remains a state-granted privilege.^[9] U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr., re-introduced House Joint Resolution 28 in March of 2005 to amend the U.S. Constitution and create a federal right to vote.^[10] The resolution had 58 co-sponsors as of April, 2005.^[11]

Although this confuses me because I thought the 15th Amendmant (The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude) covered that.  I suppose it only infers the right to vote, but doesn\’t actually declare it.  You just have to love the Law.

I think we all could agree that it\’s a good law, but still I can\’t find any information on WHY it needs to be renewed.  Is that typical of many laws?  If someone smarter than me knows, please share!