U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

Washington, DC 20425

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U.S. Commission on Civil Rights 

Washington, DC 20425 

Official Business 

Penalty for Private Use $300 

Visit us on the Web: 

www.usccr.gov 
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights 

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is an independent, bipartisan agency established by 

Congress in 1957. It is directed to: 

• Investigate complaints alleging that citizens are being deprived of their right to vote by reason

of their race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or by reason of fraudulent

practices.

• Study and collect information relating to discrimination or a denial of equal protection of the

laws under the Constitution because of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national 

origin, or in the administration of justice. 

• Appraise federal laws and policies with respect to discrimination or denial of equal protection

of the laws because of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or in the 

administration of justice. 

• Serve as a national clearinghouse for information in respect to discrimination or denial of 

equal protection of the laws because of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national 

origin. 

• Submit reports, findings, and recommendations to the President and Congress. 

• Issue public service announcements to discourage discrimination or denial of equal protection

of the laws. 

Members of the Commission 

Gerald A. Reynolds, Chairman 

Abigail Thernstrom, Vice Chairman 

Jennifer C. Braceras

Peter N. Kirsanow 

Arlan D. Melendez 

Ashley L. Taylor, Jr. 

Michael Yaki

Kenneth L. Marcus, Staff Director 

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights 

624 Ninth Street, NW 

Washington, DC 20425 

(202) 376-8128 voice 

(202) 376-8116 TTY 

www.usccr.gov

This report is available on disk in ASCII Text and Microsoft Word 2003 for persons with visual

impairments. Please call (202) 376-8110.
 VOTING RIGHTS 

 ENFORCEMENT & 

REAUTHORIZATION

____________________________________________________ 

THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE’S RECORD OF ENFORCING 

THE TEMPORARY VOTING RIGHTS ACT PROVISIONS 

U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS 

 May 2006


Letter of Transmittal 

The President 

The President of the Senate 

The Speaker of the House 

Sirs: 

The United States Commission on Civil Rights transmits this report, Voting Rights Enforcement 

& Reauthorization: The Department of Justice’s Record of Enforcing the Temporary Voting 

Rights Act Provisions, pursuant to Public Law 103-419. The Voting Rights Act is a landmark 

legislation, realizing the 15th Amendment’s promise of the right to vote ninety-five years after 

passage. On August 6, 2007, the act’s core temporary provisions will expire unless reauthorized. 

This report examines the Department of Justice’s record in enforcing the act, in particular 

Section 5. The Commission reviewed Justice Department documents, relevant court decisions, 

books and articles, and prior Commission studies on the act. Oral and written voting rights 

testimonies presented at a Commission briefing and at hearings of the House Judiciary 

Subcommittee on the Constitution augmented the findings. 

The Commission finds that objections as a percentage of submitted changes from covered 

jurisdictions have declined markedly over 40 years to the point that during the last decade, 

objections have virtually disappeared. In particular, the study examined three legislative periods, 

1965–1974, 1975–1982, and 1982–2004, and found that the proportion of objections to 

submitted changes decreased from 5.5 percent in the first period to 1.2 percent in the second, and 

to 0.6 percent in the third. Notably, the proportion of objections to submitted changes was less 

than 0.1 percent in the period 1995–2004. 

The Commission’s purpose in preparing this report is to offer a factual record that may inform

decision-makers of all political persuasions as they consider the reauthorization of the expiring 

provisions of the Voting Rights Act. At its May 4, 2006 meeting, the Commission adopted the 

report by a vote of five to two. Chairman Reynolds, Vice Chair Thernstrom and Commissioners 

Braceras, Kirsanow, and Taylor, Jr. voted in favor, while Commissioners Melendez and Yaki 

voted against. The report includes Vice Chair Thernstrom’s concurrence and Commissioners 

Melendez’s and Yaki’s joint dissent. 

For the Commissioners, 

Gerald A. Reynolds 

Chairman 
 v

Acknowledgments 

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights acknowledges the assistance of Mr. Mark Posner in the 

preparation of Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization: The Department of Justice’s 

Record of Enforcing the Temporary Voting Rights Act Provisions. Mr. Posner contributed part of 

the data on which this report is based and prepared a draft which subsequently was revised and 

expanded upon by the Commission. 
vi 

Contents 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY..........................................................................................................................................ix

OVERVIEW OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965 ...........................................................................................1

METHODOLOGY........................................................................................................................................................4

THE SECTION 5 PRECLEARANCE REQUIREMENT.............................................................................................6

The Preclearance Procedure ...................................................................................................................................6

Framing the Extension Question ..........................................................................................................................11

The Supreme Court’s Construction of Section 5 Since 1982...............................................................................14

Section 5 Enforcement Actions.....................................................................................................................14

Section 5 Preclearance Standard ...................................................................................................................17

Compliance with the Preclearance Requirement..................................................................................................19

Justice Department Preclearance Determinations ................................................................................................20

Section 5 Determinations Since 1965 ...........................................................................................................21

Section 5 Determinations in the Current Extension Period..................................................................................28

Numbers of Objections .................................................................................................................................29

Objections by Types of Changes...................................................................................................................29

A Detailed Examination of Changes Most Frequently Denied .....................................................................32

Geographic Distribution of Submitted Changes and Objections ..................................................................39

Section 5 Legislative Extension Questions ..........................................................................................................42

Extension of Section 5 ..................................................................................................................................43

Section 5 Bailout Procedure..........................................................................................................................44

THE MINORITY LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT..........................................45

Statutory Requirements........................................................................................................................................45

Justice Department Enforcement..........................................................................................................................48

Lawsuits ........................................................................................................................................................49

Cost of Section 203 Compliance...................................................................................................................50

Section 5 Objections .....................................................................................................................................51

Election Monitoring ......................................................................................................................................51

Informal Compliance Efforts.........................................................................................................................52

THE EXAMINER AND OBSERVER PROVISIONS OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT........................................53

Registration Examiners ........................................................................................................................................53

Polling Place Observers........................................................................................................................................53

CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................................................................................62

APPENDIX A SUPPLEMENTAL TABLES .............................................................................................................65

CONCURRING STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER ABIGAIL THERNSTROM...............................................83

DISSENTING STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER MICHAEL YAKI JOINED IN BY COMMISSIONER 

ARLAN MELENDEZ.................................................................................................................................................91

Intent and Section 5..............................................................................................................................................92

Declining Objections Do Not Support Nonrenewal.............................................................................................93

Deterrence Impact of Section 5 ............................................................................................................................94

Lack of Data regarding Latino Voters..................................................................................................................94

Discounting/Ignoring Racially Polarized Voting .................................................................................................95
 vii

Section 2 vs. Section 5 .........................................................................................................................................96

The Language Assistance Provisions...................................................................................................................96

Overall, Data Deficiency Renders Report Irrelevant............................................................................................97

Lack of Resources as Affecting Report................................................................................................................98

Conclusion............................................................................................................................................................98

Dissent Appendix A ...........................................................................................................................................101

Dissent Appendix B ...........................................................................................................................................103

FIGURES 

ES-1 Objections as a Percentage of Submitted Changes (August 1965 to June 30, 2004) ...........................................x

1 Objections to Submissions (August 1965 to June 2004)......................................................................................24 

2 Objections to Submitted Changes (August 1965 to December 2004)..................................................................25 

3 Objections as a Percentage of Submissions (August 1965 to June 30, 2004)......................................................26 

4 Objections as a Percentage of Submitted Changes (August 1965 to June 30, 2004)...........................................27 

5 Submitted Changes and Objections by Type (July 1, 1982 to June 30, 2004).....................................................31 

6 Percentage of Submitted Changes and Objections by Change Type (July 1, 1982 to June 30, 2004).................33 

7 Method of Election Objection by Type (July 1, 1982 to June 30, 2004) .............................................................35 

D-1 Comparison of Three Measures of Federal VRA-Related Activities in All States (1966–2004).......................101 

D-2 VRA-Related Activities (Including Enforcement Actions from 1966 to 2004).................................................102 

TABLES 

1 Section 5 Jurisdictions (since July 1, 1982) ...........................................................................................................8 

2 Section 3(c) Jurisdictions .......................................................................................................................................9 

3 Supreme Court Decisions and Selected Supreme Court Affirmances in Section 5 Enforcement Cases 

(July 1, 1982 to June 30, 2004)............................................................................................................................15 

4 Preclearance Statistics by Submissions and Objections (August 1965 to December 2004) ................................23 

5 Submitted Changes and Objections in Two Distinct Periods, 1982–1994 and 1995–2004 .................................29 

6 Submitted Changes and Objections by Type (July 1, 1982 to June 30, 2004).....................................................30 

7 Objections by type of Change, 1982–1994 and 1995–2004 ................................................................................32 

8 Method of Election Objections and Submissions (July 1, 1982 to June 30, 2004)..............................................36

9 Redistricting Objections Following the Decennial Censuses...............................................................................39 

10 Submitted Changes and Objections by State (July 1, 1982 to June 30, 2004).....................................................41 

11 Section 4(f)(4) Jurisdictions.................................................................................................................................46 

12 Section 203 Jurisdictions......................................................................................................................................47 

13 Justice Department Enforcement of the Minority Language Requirements: Lawsuits and a 

Nonlitigation Agreement, Listed by Language and Date of Filing (1975 to November 30, 2004)......................49 

14 Certification and Coverage of Election Observers through February 2006 .........................................................54 

A-1 Merit Decisions in Section 5 Declaratory Judgment Actions (July 1, 1982 to June 30, 2004)............................65 

A-2 Summary Declaratory Judgment Statistics (through June 30, 2004) ...................................................................67 

A-3 Preclearance Statistics by Year for the Current Extension Period (July 1, 1982 to June 30, 2004).....................68 

A-4 Preclearance Statistics by Year, Prior to the current Extension Period (1965 to June 30, 1982).........................69 

A-5 Preclearance Statistics by Change Type (July 1, 1982 to June 30, 2004) ............................................................70 

A-6 Objections Based on Other Provisions of the Voting Rights Act (July 1, 1982 to May 12, 1997, 

When the Supreme Court Issued Its Decision in Bossier Parish I)......................................................................72 

A-7 Objections to Statewide Redistricting Plans Since 1965......................................................................................74 
viii 

A-8 Preclearance Statistics by State (July 1, 1982 to June 30, 2004)..........................................................................75 

A-9 Justice Department Enforcement of the Minority language Requirements: Relief Granted in Lawsuits and 

Nonlitigation Agreements (1975 to November 30, 2004)....................................................................................76 

A-10 Federal Examiners and Observers (July 1, 1982 to June 30, 2004) ...................................................................79 

D-1 Racial Composition of Districts Represented by Black Elected Officials, 2000................................................103 

D-2 Racial Composition of Districts Represented by Hispanic Elected Officials, 2000...........................................103 

D-3 Successful Section 5 Enforcement Actions, Nine States (June 29, 1982 to December 31, 2004) .....................104 

MAPS 

D-1 Significant Section 4(b) Covered Jurisdictions..................................................................................................105 

D-2 Jurisdictions Covered by Section 4(f)(4) of the Voting Rights Act, by State ....................................................106 

D-3 Counties and States Covered by Section 203 .....................................................................................................107 
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

On August 6, 2007, the Voting Rights Act1 will celebrate its 42nd anniversary. On that date 

several of the act’s core provisions are set to expire: the preclearance requirement of Section 5,2

the language minority requirements of Sections 4(f)(4)3

 and 203,4 and the voting examiner and 

observer authorizations of Sections 6 through 9. Section 5 requires certain states and localities, 

principally in the South, to obtain federal approval before implementing any change in a voting 

practice or procedure. Sections 4(f)(4) and 203 require various localities throughout the country 

to provide election materials and information in one or more languages in addition to English. 

Sections 6 through 9 enable the federal government to send federal voting registrars (examiners) 

and polling place monitors (observers) to jurisdictions covered by Section 5. Together, these 

provisions have had a profound and far-reaching impact on minority citizens’ opportunity to 

participate on equal footing in our nation’s democracy and are much of the reason why many 

characterize the Voting Rights Act as the most important and effective civil rights legislation 

Congress ever adopted. At the same time, some have questioned the continuing utility of the 

expiring provisions. 

This report analyzes and discusses the Department of Justice’s decisions since 1965 in 

implementing the temporary provisions of the Voting Rights Act, with particular emphasis on 

the current extension period. The Commission conducted this study to offer the President and 

Congress a factual record with which to consider the reauthorization of the expiring provisions 

of the Voting Rights Act.5

 The Justice Department, acting through its Civil Rights Division 

(Division), stands at the center of enforcement responsibilities with regard to the act’s temporary 

provisions. The Division receives more than 99 percent of all Section 5 preclearance submissions 

and represents the United States as the statutory defendant when jurisdictions seek preclearance 

from federal court. Congress authorized the Division to file suit to enforce the language minority 

requirements, and it has performed a great majority of the work in their enforcement. The 

Attorney General, acting on the recommendation of the Civil Rights Division, possesses the sole, 

unreviewable authority to determine which counties are eligible for examiners and observers, 

and it is the Division’s responsibility to then determine if and when to dispatch them. 

Since its formation in 1957, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (Commission) has played a 

central role in documenting and explaining the need to enact, and then maintain, a strong federal 

Voting Rights Act. The Commission reported in the late 1950s and early 1960s on the pervasive 

1

 Pub. L. No. 89-110, 79 Stat. 445 (codified as amended at 42 U.S.C. §§ 1971, 1973 to 1973bb-1 (2000)). 

2

 42 U.S.C. § 1973c (2000). 

3

 42 U.S.C. 1973b(f)(4) (2000). 

4

 42 U.S.C. § 1973aa-1a (2000) 

5

 Other aspects of the factual record that Congress likely will consider, but which are outside the scope of this 

report, include data on minority participation rates (as measured by registration and turnout data, and figures on the 

number of minority elected officials), and information regarding the present status and recent history of 

discrimination in voting. 
x Executive Summary 

discrimination in voting that then existed throughout most of the South and that led to the 

passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965; reported on the initial efforts to enforce the act 

immediately after its passage; and provided reviews and analyses that assisted Congress in 

deciding to extend and expand the act’s temporary provisions in 1970, 1975, and 1982.6

 This 

report continues the Commission’s record of service in the field of voting rights. 

The Commission’s study finds the Justice Department’s objections, as a percentage of submitted 

changes from covered jurisdictions, have declined steadily and markedly over 40 years to the 

point that during the last decade, objections have virtually disappeared, particularly with respect 

to change types that represent the bulk of the submitted changes. The Commission’s study 

examined three legislative periods, 1965–1974, 1975–1982, and 1982–2004, and found that the 

proportion of objections to submitted changes decreased throughout, from 5.5 percent in the first 

period to 1.2 percent in the second, and to 0.6 percent in the third. Significantly, the ratio of 

objections to submitted changes was less than 0.1 percent in the period 1995–2004. In the 

current extension period, the Commission finds that the objection rate is low regardless of 

change type. (See figure ES-1.) 

FIGURE ES-1 

Objections as a Percentage of Submitted Changes (August 1965 to June 30, 2004) 

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

19651967

19691971

1973

19751977

1979

19811983

19851987

19891991

1993

1995

19971999

20012003

Year

Percent

Caption: During 1965–2004, the percentage of objections to submitted changes steadily declined. 

Source: Compiled from U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, Submission Tracking and Processing System 

(STAPS) data, as provided to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Sept. 20, 2004. 

6

 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR), Report of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1959; USCCR, U.S. 

Commission on Civil Rights Report, Book 1: Voting, 1961; USCCR, Report of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 

1963; USCCR, Freedom to the Free, 1963; USCCR, Voting in Mississippi, 1965; USCCR, The Voting Rights Act...

The First Months, 1965; USCCR, Political Participation, 1968; USCCR, The Voting Rights Act: Ten Years After, 

1975; USCCR, The Voting Rights Act: Unfulfilled Goals, 1981. 
Executive Summary xi

How might one understand this pattern of findings? In this difficult area, observers will 

undoubtedly interpret the data in different ways. Some observers, for example, may see the data 

as demonstrating that Section 5 has accomplished its goals as a deterrent and that further 

reauthorization is not warranted. Others, however, may interpret the declining trend of objections 

to warrant extending Section 5’s coverage to the rest of the 50 states, to the extent permissible 

under the Constitution, in order to replicate the success apparently achieved in the covered 

jurisdictions. Alternatively, some may argue that the decline in the number of objections is due, 

in part, to recent Supreme Court interpretations of the Section 5 nondiscrimination standard that 

they would urge Congress to overturn. Yet others may conclude Section 5 should be 

reauthorized in a different form in order better to reflect recent experience. For example, 

Congress could change its coverage formula, amend bailout restrictions, or shorten future 

extension periods. To some extent, the choice of interpretation may depend on each reader’s 

perspective, beliefs, and view of social history, constitutional law and the proper scope of federal 

authority. The goal of this report is not to select among competing perspectives, but rather to 

provide objective data that can inform the decisionmaking of all participants in the 

reauthorization process. 

OVERVIEW OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965 

Faced with mounting unrest and racial strife that characterized the long and painful struggle for 

African American voting rights 40 years ago, Congress enacted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 

making “the promise of the right to vote under the 15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution a 

reality, ninety-five years after [its] passage.”1

 The Voting Rights Act of 1965 stands as one of the 

most effective civil rights statutes Congress enacted.2

 Along with its core temporary provisions, in 

particular Section 5, the Voting Rights Act has increased minority voter registration, voter turnout, 

and officeholding.3

Congress adopted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to end the “blight of discrimination in voting... 

[which had] infected the electoral process in parts of our country for nearly a century.”4

 The act 

consists of a comprehensive set of stringent and interlocking remedial mechanisms. As noted, 

several of its most important provisions are temporary, and these apply only to particular states and 

localities. Other provisions are permanent and are nationwide in their scope. A brief overview of

the act follows.5

In 1965, Congress’ first and threshold concern was to ensure that black citizens in the South would 

be able to freely register to vote and then cast their ballots on Election Day. Accordingly, the act 

banned for five years the use of discriminatory literacy tests and similar devices for determining 

eligibility to vote, or to register to vote, in those areas of the country (all in the South) identified by 

1

 The Judiciary’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, United States House of Representatives hearing, Oct. 18, 2005, 

testimony of Joe Rogers, National Commission on the Voting Rights Act, p. 1. 

2 See, for example, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, briefing on the reauthorization of the temporary provisions of the 

Voting Rights Act, Washington, DC, Oct. 7, 2005 (hereafter cited as USCCR briefing, Oct. 7, 2005), testimony of 

Ronald Keith Gaddie, professor of political science, the University of Oklahoma, p. 41; Vernon Francis, LeaAnn 

Collins, Paul P. Curtis, Erica L. Hovani, Patricia A. McCausland, John M. Richards, and Kara W. Swanson, 

“Preserving a Fundamental Right: Reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act,” Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights 

Under the Law, June 2003, p. 1 (hereafter cited as Francis, “Preserving a Fundamental Right”). 

3 See, for example, Meghann E. Donahue, “‘The Report of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated’: Administering 

Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act After Georgia v. Ashcroft,” Columbia Law Review, vol. 104 (October 2004), p. 

1651 (hereafter cited as Donahue, “The Report of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated”). 

4

 South Carolina v. Katzenbach, 383 U.S. 301, 308 (1966). 

5

 A good summary of the act and the factors that led to the enactment of its various provisions may be found in the 

Senate and House Reports for the 1982 extension of the act’s temporary provisions. U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee 

on the Judiciary, VOTING RIGHTS ACT EXTENSION, S. REP. No. 97-417, at 4-9 (1982), reprinted in 1982 

U.S.C.C.A.N. 177, 181–186 (hereafter cited as 1982 Senate Report); U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, 

Committee on the Judiciary, VOTING RIGHTS ACT EXTENSION, H.R. REP. No. 227 at 3-7 (1981) (hereafter cited 

as 1981 House Report). See also Abigail M. Thernstrom, Whose Votes Count? Affirmative Action and Minority Voting 

Rights (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987) (hereafter cited as Thernstrom, Whose Votes Count?) 

(discussing the politics of the passage of the 1970, 1975, and 1982 amendments and factors that led to their enactment). 
2 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

a special coverage formula contained in Section 4 of the act.6 Congress converted this into a 

nationwide, temporary ban in 1970, and enacted a permanent nationwide ban in 1975.7

In addition, Sections 6 through 9 authorize the Attorney General to send federal registrars (referred 

to in the act as “examiners”) and election monitors (referred to as “observers”) to protect the right 

to register to vote and cast a ballot on Election Day.8

 The Justice Department may send examiners 

and observers to those political subdivisions (counties in most states; parishes in Louisiana; 

counties and independent cities in Virginia; townships in New Hampshire) the Section 4 formula 

covers and the Attorney General certifies as needing examiners and observers. Congress first 

enacted these provisions for five years, and then extended them (through amendments to the 

Section 4 coverage formula) for five years in 1970, seven years in 1975, and 25 years in 1982. The 

1970 and 1975 extensions also expanded the Section 4 coverage formula, which most notably 

resulted in coverage of the State of Texas in 1975. 

Congress’ second overriding concern in 1965 was that the jurisdictions prohibited from using tests 

or devices for registration and voting could, potentially, enact new discriminatory voting practices 

and procedures that might prove to be ineffectually remedied through case-by-case litigation. 

Accordingly, Congress enacted Section 5 of the act,9

 which specifies that whenever jurisdictions 

subject to the Section 4 coverage formula “enact or seek to administer” a change in a voting 

practice or procedure, the jurisdictions must obtain federal approval, from the Attorney General or 

the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, before they may implement the 

changes. Thus, Congress sought to “shift the advantage of time and inertia from the perpetrators of 

evil to its victims.”10 Congress originally intended Section 5, like the examiner and observer 

provisions, to be in effect for only five years. However, as with the examiner and observer 

provisions, Congress extended Section 5 (through amendments to the Section 4 coverage formula) 

in 1970, 1975, and 1982 (for five years, seven years, and 25 years, respectively), and expanded 

geographic coverage in 1970 and 1975. As originally enacted, Section 5 prohibited discrimination 

on the basis of race or color. The 1975 extension expanded the groups protected by Section 5 to 

language minorities, defined as Hispanics, Asian Americans, American Indians, and Alaskan 

Natives. 

Third, Congress wanted to codify and implement the 15th Amendment’s guarantee that no person 

would be denied the right to vote. Thus, it gave the Justice Department and private individuals the 

ability to challenge discriminatory voting schemes in court. In states and localities not covered by 

6 42 U.S.C. § 1973b. Section 4 requires that coverage determinations are first made state-by-state and then, in those 

states where coverage is not statewide, separately for each of the states’ political subdivisions. Coverage applies to 

jurisdictions in which less than 50 percent of voting age citizens were registered on Nov. 1, 1964, or less than 

50 percent of such citizens participated in the 1964 presidential elections. Section 14(c)(2) of the act, 42 U.S.C. § 

1973(c)(2), defines the term “political subdivision” to mean “any county or parish, except that where registration for 

voting is not conducted under the supervision of a county or parish, the term shall include any other subdivision of a 

State which conducts registration for voting.” 

7

 42 U.S.C. § 1973aa. 

8

 42 U.S.C. §§ 1973d-1973g. 

9

 42 U.S.C. § 1973c. 

10 South Carolina v. Katzenbach, 383 U.S. 301, 325. 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 3

Section 5, court challenges are the only means for enjoining discriminatory voting schemes. 

Section 2 of the act11 contains the general prohibition on voting discrimination that is enforced 

through litigation, which Congress amended in 1982 to prohibit any voting practice or procedure 

that has a discriminatory result. The 1982 amendment made clear that proof of discriminatory intent 

is not required, while placing the focus on whether the political processes were equally accessible 

to minority voters.12 The 1982 amendment led hundreds of counties, cities, and school districts 

throughout the country to change from at-large voting schemes to district election systems, either 

voluntarily, under threat of a lawsuit, or in the context of litigation.13

The act also provides special remedies for voting rights litigation. Section 3(a)14 allows a court to 

designate the defendant jurisdiction for federal examiners and observers, and Section 3(c)15 allows a 

court to require the defendant jurisdiction to obtain federal preclearance for its voting changes 

(either from that court or the Attorney General), both for a specified period of time. 

Congress’ fourth concern in enacting, or more accurately, in subsequently amending the Voting 

Rights Act has been to ensure that citizens who primarily speak a language other than English, and 

who have limited English proficiency, are not prevented from voting due to English-only 

registration forms, ballots, and other election materials. Initially, the act included a limited 

provision that protected the right to vote of persons educated in American-flag schools in which 

English was not the predominant classroom language.16 In 1975, Congress substantially expanded 

the language minority protections by enacting Sections 4(f)(4) and 203.17 These sections require 

that covered jurisdictions provide election materials and information in specified languages in 

addition to English. Section 4(f)(4) applies to those jurisdictions added to Section 5 and 

11 42 U.S.C. § 1973. Section 2 is the federal protection against any voting “standard, practice, or procedure” that results

in a denial or abridgement of the right to vote on account of race or color, or membership in a language minority group. 

12 See S. REP. No. 97-417, at 15–16 (1982), reprinted in 1982 U.S.C.C.A.N. 177, 179. Specifically, based on the 

totality of circumstances, a violation occurs when the political process is “not equally open to participation” by

members of a particular protected class because they “have less opportunity than other members of the electorate to 

participate in the electoral process and to elect representatives of their choice.” 

13 See Chandler Davidson and Bernard Grofman, Quiet Revolution in the South, Princeton University Press, 1994; The 

National Commission on the Voting Rights Act, Protecting Minority Voters: The Voting Rights Act at Work 1982–

2005, February 2006, pp. 81–88 (hereafter cited as National Commission on the Voting Rights Act, Protecting 

Minority Voters). The National Commission on the Voting Rights Act (NCVRA) is a nonprofit coalition established by 

the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law to determine whether, and to what extent, voter discrimination has 

occurred since the last Voting Rights Act reauthorization in 1982. Its members include former elected and appointed 

officials, academics, lawyers, and others. Co-sponsors include the Asian American Justice Center, Asian American 

Legal Defense and Education Fund, Association of Communities Organized for Reform Now, Black Leadership 

Forum, Center for Civic Participation, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Demos: A Network of Ideas & Action, 

Korean American League for Civic Action, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund, NAACP National

Voter Fund, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, National Congress of American Indians, National Voting 

Rights Institute, People for the American Way Foundation, Project Vote, Rainbow/Push Coalition, Rock the Vote, and 

the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. NCVRA held 10 hearings across the country between March and 

October 2005.

14 42 U.S.C. § 1973a(a). 

15 42 U.S.C. § 1973a(c). 

16 42 U.S.C. § 1973b(e). 

17 42 U.S.C. §§ 1973b(f)(4) and 1973aa-1a. 
4 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

examiner/observer coverage by the 1975 amendment to the Section 4 coverage formula. Congress 

originally enacted the provision for seven years and extended it in 1982 for 25 years (along with 

Section 5 and the examiner/observer provisions). Section 203 has its own coverage formula. 

Congress enacted it for 10 years in 1975, extended it in 1982 for 10 years, and extended it again 

until 2007 in 1992. Both Sections 4(f)(4) and 203 are enforced through litigation. 

A fifth concern Congress identified when it amended the act in 1982 relates to voters who may 

require assistance in casting their ballot. Section 208 of the act provides that “[a]ny voter who 

requires assistance to vote by reason of blindness, disability, or inability to read or write may be 

given assistance by a person of the voter’s choice, other than the voter’s employer or agent of that 

employer or officer or agent of the voter’s union.”18

Lastly, since its enactment in 1965, the Voting Rights Act has prohibited persons from engaging in 

voter intimidation and from intimidating federal examiners and observers. It also has provided for 

criminal penalties for various violations of the act.19

METHODOLOGY 

This report generally examines the period from August 1965 to June 30, 2004, focusing specifically 

on the current extension period and Section 5. Except for Section 203, Congress last extended the 

temporary provisions of the Voting Rights Act in legislation adopted on June 29, 1982 (Congress 

extended Section 203 in 1982 and then again in 1992).20 The Commission subpoenaed and the 

Justice Department provided most of the information needed to prepare this report during the late 

summer and early fall of 2004. 

This report is based on a detailed review of the thousands of pages of documents the Justice 

Department provided to the Commission, supplemented by reviews of relevant court decisions, 

books and articles written by commentators on voting rights issues, and previous Commission 

reports on the Voting Rights Act. 

With regard to the Section 5 preclearance requirement, the Commission received essentially every 

letter the department issued denying Section 5 preclearance from January 1, 1980 through June 

2004 (approximately 675 letters);21 listings the department compiled of all preclearance denials and 

all lawsuits Section 5 jurisdictions filed seeking preclearance from 1965 through June 2004; recent 

18 42 U.S.C. § 1973aa-6. 

19 Sections 11 and 12, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1973i and 1973j. The 1982 extension also specified that Congress was to

reconsider Section 5, the examiner and observer provisions, and the Section 4(f)(4) language minority requirement in

1997. Section 4(a)(7), 42 U.S.C. § 1973b(a)(7). This review did not take place. 

20 Pub. L. No. 97-205, 96 Stat. 131 (1982); Pub. L. No. 102-344, 106 Stat. 921 (1992). 

21 The division was unable to locate two of the letters. 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 5

briefs the department filed in district court and the Supreme Court in Section 5 preclearance 

lawsuits; a listing of Section 5 litigation the department filed seeking to enjoin the implementation 

of unprecleared voting changes; numerous statistical tables regarding Section 5 submissions and 

denials from 1965 through June 2004; a listing of lawsuits Section 5 jurisdictions filed seeking to 

bail out (exempt themselves) from coverage and recent consent decrees in these lawsuits; the 

department’s current Procedures for the Administration of Section 5 and all amendments adopted or 

proposed since 1982; district court orders requiring certain jurisdictions not covered under 

Section 5 to temporarily obtain federal preclearance for their voting changes; and all briefs the 

Justice Department filed in the Supreme Court since 1993 in cases in which a redistricting plan a 

Section 5 jurisdiction adopted was alleged to be an unconstitutional racial or ethnic gerrymander.22

With regard to the act’s language minority requirements, the Commission reviewed all court 

decisions and settlements in language minority lawsuits the Justice Department filed from 1978 

through November 2004, as well as nonlitigation settlements the department entered into during 

this time period; department correspondence regarding enforcement issues; the department’s 

current Language Minority Guidelines and amendments adopted since 1982; and a department 

summary describing its enforcement activities. 

With regard to the act’s examiner and observer authorizations, the Commission obtained a list of all 

counties the Attorney General certified for examiners and observers from 1965 through June 2004, 

district court orders certifying additional counties for examiners and observers on a temporary 

basis, and listings of all jurisdictions to which the department has assigned federal examiners and 

observers from July 1982 through June 2004.23

Recognizing that jurisdictions’ motives for proposing voting changes cannot be ascertained without 

a close examination of each voting change submission and the Justice Department’s reasons for 

objections to submissions, the overall numbers and scope of objections serve as a possible indicator 

of actual or potential discriminatory voting changes. Other indicators such as the U.S. District Court 

of the District of Columbia’s denial of declaratory judgments and jurisdictions’ withdrawal letters24

are beyond the scope of this study. These other two indicators when viewed in conjunction with 

objections slightly raise the level of questionable proposed voting changes.25 Some would argue 

that Justice Department objections underrepresent such efforts by Section 5 jurisdictions to the 

extent that any covered jurisdictions illegally implement voting changes without preclearance.26

Others would argue that the Justice Department objections overstate discriminatory voting changes 

22 A “gerrymander” refers to the act of drawing of legislative district boundaries to electorally benefit one group over 

another group. 23 The Commission also requested that the Justice Department provide certain internal documents created since January 

1997 regarding Section 5 preclearance reviews, its consideration of lawsuits to enforce Section 5 or the language 

minority requirements, any consideration of potential amendments to the Section 5 Procedures or the Language 

Minority Guidelines, and any consideration of whether to issue other policy statements relating to Section 5 or the 

language minority requirements. The Justice Department declined to provide these documents, citing deliberative 

process privilege and attorney work product protection. 24 A withdrawal letter is a jurisdiction’s official letter notifying the Justice Department of its withdrawal of the change/s

it previously submitted after the department’s follow-up inquiries. Protecting Minority Voters The Voting Rights Act at

Work 1982–2005, A Report by The National Commission on the Voting Rights Act, February 2006, pp. 50, 57–58. 25 National Commission on the Voting Rights Act, Protecting Minority Voters, figure 1, no page number. 26 National Commission on the Voting Rights Act, Protecting Minority Voters, p.52. 
6 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

to the extent that the Justice Department has raised objections of questionable validity. The latter 

view is bolstered by judicial criticisms of the Justice Department’s objections, including criticism

that the Voting Rights Section has worked too closely with advocacy groups, as well as the 

department’s poor record defending its positions before the courts.27

THE SECTION 5 PRECLEARANCE REQUIREMENT 

The Preclearance Procedure 

To obtain Section 5 preclearance, either from the Attorney General or the U.S. District Court for the 

District of Columbia, covered jurisdictions must demonstrate that a voting change neither has the 

purpose nor will have the effect of discriminating based on race, color, and/or membership in a 

language minority group depending on whether the jurisdiction was covered as a result of the 

original enactment of later amendments. “Membership in a language minority group” includes 

“persons who are American Indian, Asian American, Alaskan Natives or of Spanish heritage.”28

Covered jurisdictions have the burden of proof in demonstrating the absence of discrimination.29

Covered jurisdictions may not implement voting changes unless and until they obtain federal 

preclearance. The Justice Department has 60 days to respond to a request for a voting change. 

Where the Justice Department or court denies a preclearance request, the jurisdiction can continue 

to maintain the pre-existing voting practice or procedure (typically the practice or procedure in 

effect on the jurisdiction’s coverage date or a subsequent precleared practice or procedure), or may 

adopt a substitute and seek preclearance for it. If, as sometimes has occurred, a jurisdiction 

unlawfully implements a change before the Justice Department denies preclearance, the jurisdiction 

must return to the pre-existing practice or procedure or adopt a substitute change. In the case of 

redistrictings, a preclearance denial typically will result in the jurisdiction adopting a new plan 

(which then must be submitted for preclearance) since the redistricting plan that previously was in 

effect typically can no longer be implemented because it violates the constitutional requirement of 

one-person, one-vote. 

The geographic coverage of Section 5 is determined by the formula set forth in Section 4(b) of the 

act. As originally enacted in 1965, and amended in 1970 and 1975, the formula specifies that a 

jurisdiction is covered if: (1) less than 50 percent of its voting-age residents were registered to vote 

27 See, for example, Miller v. Johnson, 864 F. Supp. 1354 (S.D.Ga. 1994) (criticizing the Justice Department’s 

enforcement record as partisan and manipulative in its efforts to implement max-black redistricting schemes). See 

footnote 75 for a more detailed description of the court’s findings. See also Abigail M. Thernstrom, Whose Votes 

Count?, pp. 169–91 (offering evidence that the Justice Department has exhibited a pattern of flawed reasoning and 

purposeful circumvention of court precedent, and that it routinely failed to make the distinction between intentional 

discrimination and discriminatory effect). Ibid., pp. 170–71, 174. 28 Section 14(c)(3), 42 U.S.C. § 1973(c)(3). 

29 Georgia v. United States, 411 U.S. 526 (1973); Procedures for the Administration of Section 5 of the Voting Rights 

Act, 28 C.F.R. § 51.52(a) (2005) (hereafter cited as “Section 5 Procedures”). 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 7

on November 1, 1964, 1968, or 1972 or voted in the presidential elections in those years; and (2) at 

the same time, the jurisdiction utilized a test or device for determining eligibility to vote or to 

register to vote.30 Devices include literacy and moral fitness tests and, for purposes of the coverage 

determinations based on the 1972 registration and voting rates, the use of English-only election 

materials and information. The latter applies to jurisdictions in which language minority persons 

constitute more than 5 percent of the citizen voting-age population. Covered jurisdictions may seek 

to bail out from coverage by filing a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of 

Columbia.31

Section 5 applies to nine states in their entirety: Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, 

Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia.32 The provision also covers substantial portions 

of two other states—North Carolina (40 of the state’s 100 counties) and New York (the Bronx, 

Brooklyn, and Manhattan)—and relatively small portions of California, Florida, Michigan, New 

Hampshire, and South Dakota.33 (See table 1.) 

30 Congress determined at that time that registration rates lower than 50 percent were a clear indication of voting 

discrimination in these jurisdictions. Some scholars have argued that registration and turnout trends in recent elections 

demonstrate that the coverage formula no longer provides a reasonable indicator of discrimination in the covered 

jurisdictions. See, for example, Charles S. Bullock and Ronald Keith Gaddie, “An Assessment of Voting Rights 

Progress in Georgia,” (hereafter cited as Bullock and Gaddie, “An Assessment of Voting Rights Progress in Georgia”) 

“An Assessment of Voting Rights Progress in Louisiana,” (hereafter cited as Bullock and Gaddie, “An Assessment of 

Voting Rights Progress in Louisiana.”) and “An Assessment of Voting Rights Progress in South Carolina,” (hereafter 

cited as Bullock and Gaddie, “An Assessment of Voting Rights Progress in South Carolina”) papers prepared for the 

American Enterprise Institute, February 2006. Dr. Gaddie testified before Congress that, based on evidence of 

increased voter participation and improved voter opportunity, Congress should explore how to remove federal

oversight where it is no longer needed. Ronald Keith Gaddie, professor of political science, University of Oklahoma, 

testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution,

Oct. 21, 2005 (hereafter cited as Gaddie testimony before Congress). Moreover, none of the covered jurisdictions has a 

“test or device,” and none has had one for many years. Others, however, have taken a different view, arguing that

despite progress, discrimination continues in the covered jurisdictions and, therefore, Section 5 remains necessary. See

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Reauthorization of the Temporary Provisions of the Voting Rights Act: An 

Examination of the Act’s Section 5 Preclearance Provision, briefing report, February 2006, statements of 

Commissioners Arlan Melendez and Michael Yaki, pp. 59–63; The National Commission on the Voting Rights Act, 

Protecting Minority Voters: The Voting Rights Act at Work 1982–2005, February 2006; and USCCR briefing, Oct. 7, 

2005, statement of Jon M. Greenbaum, director, Voting Rights Project, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under 

Law, transcript pp. 60–70; and Anita S. Earls, director of advocacy, University of North Carolina Center for Civil 

Rights, testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the 

Constitution, Oct. 25, 2005. 

31 42 U.S.C. §1973b(a). See infra at pp. 44–45 for a further discussion of the legal standard for obtaining bailout. 

32 Section 5 applies statewide in Virginia under the Voting Rights Act coverage formula. The 1982 extension allows 

individual counties in a state covered in its entirety to bail out. Since 1997 nine counties and independent cities in 

Virginia have done so. 

33 U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section “Section 5 Covered Jurisdictions,” n. d., 

<http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/sec_5/covered.htm> (last accessed Jan. 25, 2006). 
8 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

TABLE 1 

 Section 5 Jurisdictions (since July 1, 1982) 

Statewide coverage Coverage of a 

substantial portion 

of a state 

Minimal coverage of 

a state 

Bailed out after July 1, 1982 

(year) 

Alabama 

Alaska 

Arizona 

Georgia 

Louisiana 

Mississippi 

South Carolina 

Texas

Virginia (until 1997) 

New York (Bronx, Kings, 

and New York Counties) 

North Carolina 

(40 counties) 

Virginia (statewide 

except for 9 counties 

and independent cities 

that bailed out beginning 

in 1997) 

California (4 counties) 

Florida (5 counties) 

Michigan (2 townships) 

New Hampshire 

(10 towns) 

South Dakota 

(2 counties) 

Colorado (1 county) (1984) 

Connecticut (3 towns) (1984) 

Hawaii (1 county) (1984) 

Idaho (1 county) (1984) 

Massachusetts (9 towns) (1983) 

Virginia (9 counties and 

independent cities since 1997) 

Wyoming (1 county) (1982) 

Caption: Section 5 statewide coverage includes Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, 

Texas, and Virginia. Section 5 also covers parts of California, Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, 

and South Dakota. 

Sources: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, “Section 5 Covered Jurisdictions,” <http://www.

usdoj.gov/crt/voting/sec_5/covered.htm> (last accessed Dec. 21, 2005); U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, 

“Voting Section Cases in Which the United States Participation Began Since Oct. 1, 1976,” response to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

document request, Aug. 20, 2004. 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 9

Pursuant to Section 3(c) of the Voting Rights Act, a court may designate other jurisdictions as 

subject to the same preclearance requirements in Section 5 for a limited period for specified 

changes.34 Table 2 lists the jurisdictions covered under Section 3(c) from July 1982 through 

June 2004. 

 TABLE 2 

 Section 3(c) Jurisdictions 

State Geographic coverage Covered voting changes Time period 

Arkansas Statewide Changes relating to a majority vote 

requirement in general elections 

1990 until further order of 

the court 

California Alameda County All voting changes 1996–1998 

Los Angeles County Changes affecting the method of 

electing the LA County Board of 

Supervisors 

1991–2002 

Florida Escambia County All voting changes 1979–1984 

Illinois Alexander County All voting changes 1983–1988 

Nebraska Thurston County All voting changes 1983–1988 

New Mexico Statewide State legislative redistrictings 1984–1994 

Bernalillo County All voting changes 1998–2003 

Cibola County All voting changes 1994–2004 

McKinley County All voting changes 1986–1996 

Sandoval County All voting changes 1994–2004 

Socorro County All voting changes 1994–2004 

South Dakota Buffalo County All voting changes 2004–2013 

Caption: Section 3(c) jurisdictions have included the entire state of Arkansas and specific counties in California, Florida, 

Illinois, Nebraska, New Mexico, and South Dakota. 

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, “Section 3(c) Cases,” response to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

document request, Aug. 20, 2004. 

Section 5 broadly applies to all voting changes that a covered jurisdiction enacts or seeks to 

administer. Coverage applies to voting changes that are both major or minor in scope, regardless of 

the manner in which they were adopted.35 Among others, Section 5 covers changes to: 

(1) redistricting plans, annexations, and de-annexations; 

(2) methods of elections (for example, from at-large to single-member districts, the use of a 

majority vote requirement, or from elective to appointive and vice versa) or the number of 

elected officials; 

34 The only difference between the Section 3(c) and Section 5 procedure is that Section 3(c) jurisdictions seek judicial 

preclearance from the federal district court that ordered coverage, instead of the District Court for the District of 

Columbia. 

35 See 42 U.S.C.S. 1973c (2005); Young v. Fordice, 520 U.S. 273 (1997); Presley v. Etowah County, 502 U.S. 491 

(1992); NAACP v. Hampton County Election Commission, 470 U.S. 166 (1985); McDaniel v. Sanchez, 452 U.S. 130 

(1981); Allen v. State Board of Elections, 393 U.S. 544 (1969); and Section 5 Procedures, 28 C.F.R. §§ 51.7, 51.12, 

51.17, and 51.18. 
10 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

(3) precinct lines, polling place locations, and absentee or early voting locations; 

(4) ballot format, balloting rules, polling place procedures, early voting and absentee voting 

procedures, ballot initiatives, referenda, and recall procedures; 

(5) special election dates; 

(6) voter registration; 

(7) the procedures and standards for becoming a candidate for elective office and campaign 

finance requirements; 

(8) the public electoral functions adopted by political parties; and 

(9) the languages in which jurisdictions provide voting materials and information to the 

public.36

A jurisdiction may seek judicial preclearance either directly from the U.S. District Court for the 

District of Columbia or after first seeking and being denied preclearance from the Attorney General 

(the Attorney General’s preclearance denial is referred to as an “objection”). In court, the 

jurisdiction files for a declaratory judgment, and the case is heard de novo.

37 Section 5 specifies that 

a special three-judge panel (composed of two district court judges and a court of appeals judge) 

must hear declaratory judgment actions, and appeals go directly to the Supreme Court. 

Congress enacted the administrative preclearance process to provide an expeditious and generally 

inexpensive means for covered jurisdictions to obtain preclearance.38 The Attorney General must 

make the preclearance determination within 60 days of receiving the preclearance request, or the 

change automatically is precleared (in certain circumstances the Attorney General may restart the 

60-day review period).39 It is Justice Department practice to affirmatively respond to all submitted 

changes (rather than acting to preclear submitted changes by simply not responding within the 

60-day review period).40

The Attorney General’s Procedures for the Administration of Section 5 govern the administrative 

preclearance process.41 The process is relatively informal compared to federal court litigation 

(i.e., not adversarial, neither includes parties nor testimony, and the Justice Department does not 

have subpoena power). The Justice Department obtains information from covered jurisdictions and 

interested individuals and organizations through written submissions, telephone conversations, and 

36 Section 5 Procedures, 28 C.F.R. § 51.13. 37 De novo means that if the Attorney General previously objected, the court undertakes to review the proposed change 

anew and does not simply review the Attorney General’s decision. Decisions by the Attorney General to preclear 

voting changes are not subject to any review in the courts. Morris v. Gressette, 432 U.S. 491 (1977). Harris v. Bell, 562 

F.2d 772 (D.C. Cir. 1977). See also Section 5 Procedures, 28 C.F.R. § 51.13(e). 

38 Morris v. Gressette, 432 U.S. 491 (1977). See also McCain v. Lybrand, 465 U.S. 236 (1984). 

39 Section 5 Procedures, 28 C.F.R. §§ 51.37, 51.39. 

40 Section 5 Procedures, 28 C.F.R. § 51.41. 

41 Section 5 Procedures, 28 C.F.R. pt. 51. 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 11

meetings in Washington, DC. The Attorney General has delegated decisionmaking authority under 

Section 5 to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights,42 and in practice the Division’s Voting 

Section is responsible for the receipt, investigation, and analysis of all voting changes submitted for 

administrative preclearance. 

Section 5 specifies that preclearance by either the Justice Department or the district court does not 

preclude the department or private individuals from challenging the precleared provision in court, 

claiming it violates other provisions of the Voting Rights Act, other federal voting rights statutes, or 

the Constitution. 

Framing the Extension Question 

From its inception, Section 5 has been recognized as an extraordinary measure justified as a 

temporary remedy needed to undo nearly a century of pervasive, unremitting, and extraordinary 

discrimination that followed ratification of the 15th Amendment in 1870. Section 5 is unique 

among federal laws because of the change it imposes on the traditional relationship between the 

federal government and state and local governments. Federal law historically presumes state and 

local laws are valid unless and until challenged in court and found to violate a federal provision. 

Under Section 5, however, the presumption is reversed, and state and local laws are presumed 

invalid unless and until the Attorney General or the District Court for the District of Columbia 

determines them lawful. As the Supreme Court stated in 1966 in upholding the constitutionality of 

Section 5: 

[Section 5] may have been an uncommon exercise of congressional power . . . but the Court 

has recognized that exceptional conditions can justify legislative measures not otherwise 

appropriate. Congress knew that some of the States covered by [the Section 4 coverage 

formula] had resorted to the extraordinary stratagem of contriving new rules of various kinds 

for the sole purpose of perpetrating voting discrimination in the face of adverse federal court 

decrees. Congress had reason to suppose that these States might try similar maneuvers in the 

future in order to evade the remedies for voting discrimination contained in the Act itself. 

Under the compulsion of these unique circumstances, Congress responded in a permissibly

decisive manner.43

The Supreme Court again upheld the constitutionality of Section 5 in 1980, reaffirming its 1966 

decision and sustaining Congress’ 1975 determination to extend Section 5 for an additional seven 

years as “both unsurprising and unassailable.”44 In upholding the extension, the Court highlighted 

Congress’ finding that progress under the act still was limited and fragile, and that the Justice 

Department’s Section 5 objections record indicated a continuing need for the provision’s remedy. 

42 Section 5 Procedures, 28 C.F.R. § 51.3. 

43 South Carolina v. Katzenbach, 383 U.S. 301, 334-35 (1966). Justice Black dissented as to the constitutionality of 

Section 5, arguing that “if all the provisions of our Constitution which limit the power of the Federal Government and

reserve other power to the States are to mean anything, they mean at least that the States have power to pass laws and 

amend their constitutions without first sending their officials hundreds of miles away to beg federal authorities to 

approve them.” Id. at 359.

44 Rome v. United States, 446 U.S. 156, 182 (1980). 
12 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

The Court further noted that the extension would result in Section 5 being in force for only 17 years 

compared to the near century of pervasive discrimination which followed ratification of the 15th 

Amendment and which engendered Section 5’s enactment in 1965.45 The Supreme Court did not 

reconsider Section 5’s constitutionality following the 1982 extension. 

Extension presents both policy and constitutional dilemmas. In 2007, Section 5 will have been in 

effect for more than four decades, during which Congress extended it periodically and for shorter 

time periods than the current extension period. By 2007, the pervasive discrimination that preceded 

the act’s passage will be significantly more distant in time. In the four decades since, the nation has 

experienced dramatic social, economic, and political changes that have improved opportunities for 

all Americans. In particular, social changes have significantly expanded the opportunities available 

to minorities, not only in electoral politics, but also in a host of other areas.46 Together with these 

broader social changes, Section 5 enforcement and other Voting Rights Act remedies, have enabled 

minority citizens to make substantial strides toward achieving equal electoral opportunity in 

covered jurisdictions.47 These changes have been reflected, for instance, in voter registration and 

turnout rates, as well as in the electoral success of minority candidates. For example, recent 

research in three covered states in the South (Georgia, South Carolina, and Louisiana) demonstrates 

that voter registration and turnout rates have grown markedly since the Voting Rights Act’s 

passage, as has the number of minorities elected to office.48

In Georgia, the gap between white and black registration rates narrowed steadily since the Voting 

Rights Act’s last reauthorization in 1982, with the self-reported black rate surpassing that of whites 

in 2004 (64.2 percent and 63.5 percent, respectively).49 These are remarkable figures given the 

educational and economic disparities between the two racial groups and the high correlation 

between socioeconomic status and voter participation. At the same time, the gap in registration 

rates in non-southern states remained present, with blacks lagging behind whites by 6 percentage 

points in 2002, the most recent year for which such data are available. Black voter turnout rates in 

Georgia increased from 53.5 percent in 1996 to 72.2 percent in 2004.50

In South Carolina, although black registration rates were 3.3 percentage points behind whites in 

2004, at 71.1 percent they were higher than they have ever been.51 Black voter turnout rates 

45 Id. at 180–82. Justices Powell, Rehnquist, and Stewart dissented, arguing that Section 5 violates constitutional 

principles of federalism.

46 See, for example, Abigail and Stephen Thernstrom, America in Black and White (New York: Simon & Schuster, 

1997). 

47 See, for example, Donahue, “The Report of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated,” p. 1651; USCCR briefing, Oct. 7, 

2005, testimony of Ronald Keith Gaddie, professor of political science, the University of Oklahoma, pp. 41, 45–49; 

Grant M. Hayden, “Resolving the Dilemma of Minority Representation,” California Law Review, vol. 92, (December 

2004), p. 1,589 (hereafter cited as Hayden, “Resolving the Dilemma of Minority Representation”); and USCCR 

briefing, Oct. 7, 2005, testimony of Edward Blum, visiting fellow, American Enterprise Institute, transcript, p. 31.

48 See, for example, Bullock and Gaddie, “An Assessment of Voting Rights Progress in Georgia;” Bullock and Gaddie, 

“An Assessment of Voting Rights Progress in South Carolina;” and Bullock and Gaddie, “An Assessment of Voting 

Rights Progress in Louisiana.” 

49 Bullock and Gaddie, “An Assessment of Voting Rights Progress in Georgia,” p. 33, table 2. 

50 Bullock and Gaddie, “An Assessment of Voting Rights Progress in Georgia,” p. 35, table 4. 

51 Bullock and Gaddie, “An Assessment of Voting Rights Progress in South Carolina,” p. 30, table 1. 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 13

(65.8 percent) also lagged behind white turnout rates (72.3 percent) in 2004, but they were similar 

to those among African Americans nationwide.52

Finally, between 1980 and 2004, self-reported registration rates between blacks and whites were 

similar in Louisiana, each above 70 percent for most years. Black voter registration rates in 

Louisiana are higher than blacks outside the South; in 2002, blacks in Louisiana were 

16.5 percentage points more likely to report being registered than non-southern blacks. Similarly, 

black turnout rates in Louisiana are higher than in states outside the South; in the 2000 election, the 

difference was 10 percentage points.53 And black and white turnout rates in Louisiana are 

consistently similar. 

The result in each of the three states examined has been a dramatic increase in the number of black 

elected officials between 1969 and 2001: in Georgia from 30 to 611; in South Carolina from 28 to 

534; and in Louisiana from 65 to 705.54 Nationwide, between 1970 and 2001, the number of black 

elected officials increased from 1,469 to 9,101.55

With this progress and with the passage of time, the concern about Section 5’s encroachment on 

state authority will loom larger.56 This context gives rise to the following legislative questions: 

• Should Section 5 be extended? A decision to extend would represent a determination that 

the progress to date remains insufficient and/or a real and substantial possibility of

backsliding exists should covered jurisdictions be free to adopt new voting practices and 

procedures without federal approval. A decision not to extend would represent a 

determination that any new discriminatory practices or procedures may be appropriately 

addressed through the ordinary processes of litigation, in the same manner that individuals 

challenge such practices or procedures elsewhere in the country. 

• If Section 5 is extended, how long should that extension be?

52 Bullock and Gaddie, “An Assessment of Voting Rights Progress in South Carolina,” pp. 12, 32, table 3. 

53 Bullock and Gaddie, “An Assessment of Voting Rights Progress in Louisiana,” p. 10, table 3. 

54 Bullock and Gaddie, “An Assessment of Voting Rights Progress in Georgia,” p. 36, table 5; Bullock and Gaddie, 

“An Assessment of Voting Rights Progress in South Carolina,” p. 33, table 4; and Bullock and Gaddie, “An 

Assessment of Voting Rights Progress in Louisiana,” p. 12, table 4. 

55 David A. Bositis, “Black Elected Officials,” a statistical summary prepared for the Joint Center for Political and

Economic Studies, 2001, p. 13, table 1. In the three states examined here, the proportion of elected officials who are 

black are as follows: Georgia, 9.3 percent (blacks comprised 26.6 percent of the state’s voting age population in 2000);

South Carolina, 13.5 percent (blacks comprise 27.2 percent of the state’s voting age population); and Louisiana, 

13.9 percent (blacks comprise 29.7 percent of the state’s voting age population). Ibid., p. 16, table 3. 

56 See, for example, Richard L. Hasen, “Congressional Power to Renew the Preclearance Provision of the Voting Rights 

Act After Tennessee v. Lane,” Ohio State University Law Journal, vol. 66 (2005), p. 177; and Samuel Issacharoff, “Is 

Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act A Victim of Its Own Success?”, Columbia Law Review, vol. 104 (October 2004), 

p.1710 (hereafter cited as Issacharoff, “Is Section 5 a Victim of Its Own Success?”); USCCR briefing, Oct. 7, 2005, 

testimony of Edward Blum, visiting fellow, American Enterprise Institute, transcript, p. 38; and USCCR briefing,

Oct. 7, 2005, testimony of Roger Clegg, president and general counsel, Center for Equal Opportunity, transcript, p. 56. 
14 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

• If Section 5 is extended, should Congress reverse recent Supreme Court decisions 

interpreting Section 5 that have limited the scope of the preclearance standard?57

• If Section 5 is extended, should it continue to cover all voting changes, or should Section 5 

be amended to focus only on changes that the Justice Department has most frequently found 

discriminatory and any others that present significant concerns?

• If Section 5 is extended, should Congress alter the procedure by which covered jurisdictions 

may seek to bail out from coverage and/or amend the formula for determining geographic 

coverage, such as, updating the trigger to reflect registration and turnout figures in the 2004 

election? 

Drawing conclusions about these legislative policy questions based on the Justice Department’s 

record of Section 5 enforcement requires a detailed analysis of that record.58

The Supreme Court’s Construction of Section 5 Since 1982 

The Supreme Court’s interpretation and application of Section 5 since 1982 tells two very different 

stories. On the one hand, where the issue is Section 5 coverage or procedure, the Court has 

continued to apply the broad interpretations set forth in its pre-1982 decisions. On the other hand, 

where the Section 5 discrimination standard is the issue, the Court, beginning in 1995, has been 

extremely critical of the Justice Department’s application of the preclearance standard. 

Section 5 Enforcement Actions 

Lawsuits dealing with Section 5 coverage or procedure are known as Section 5 enforcement 

lawsuits. The issues presented in these cases include the types of changes Section 5 covers, 

Section 5’s prohibition on the implementation of unprecleared changes, and Justice Department 

57 See Reno v. Bossier Parish School Board, 520 U.S. 471 (1997); Reno v. Bossier Parish School Board, 528 U.S. 320 

(2000); and Georgia v. Ashcroft 539 U.S. 461 (2003). 

58 Several commentators have analyzed the constitutional issues that would be presented by a congressional extension 

of Section 5 in 2007. See USCCR briefing, Oct. 7, 2005, testimony of Edward Blum, visiting fellow, American 

Enterprise Institute, transcript, p. 38; Roger Clegg, president and general counsel, Center for Equal Opportunity, 

transcript, p. 56; and Jon M. Greenbaum, director, Voting Rights Project, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under 

Law, transcript, pp. 69–70. See also Issacharoff, “Is Section 5 a Victim of Its Own Success?”; Richard L. Hasen, 

“Congressional Power to Renew the Preclearance Provision of the Voting Rights Act After Tennessee v. Lane,” Ohio 

State University Law Journal, vol. 66 (2005); Grant M. Hayden, “The Supreme Court and Voting Rights: A More 

Complete Exit Strategy,” 83 N.C.L. Rev. 949 (2005); Michael J. Pitts, “Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act: A Once and 

Future Remedy?,” 81 Denver U. L. Rev. 225 (2003) (hereafter cited as Pitts, “Section 5: A Once and Future 

Remedy?”); Paul Winke, “Why the Preclearance and Bailout Provisions of the Voting Rights Act Are Still a 

Constitutionally Proportionate Remedy,” 28 N.Y.U. Rev. Law & Social Change 69 (2003); Victor Andres Rodriguez, 

“Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 After Boerne: The Beginning of the End of Preclearance?,” 91 Cal. L. Rev.

776 (2003); Pamela Karlan, “Two Section Twos and Two Section Fives: Voting Rights and Remedies After Flores,” 39 

Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 725 (1998). 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 15

procedures for Section 5 administrative preclearance reviews.59 (See table 3 for a listing of Supreme 

Court decisions and selected affirmances in Section 5 enforcement cases from July 1, 1982 through 

June 30, 2004.) 

TABLE 3 

Supreme Court Decisions and Selected Supreme Court Affirmances in Section 5 Enforcement Cases 

(July 1, 1982 to June 30, 2004) 

Subject Case Holding 

Section 5 coverage NAACP v. Hampton County

Election Commission, 470 U.S. 166 

(1985) 

Preclearance required for administrative voting 

changes adopted to implement a previously

precleared change. 

United States v. State of Texas, 

No. SA-85-CA-2199 (W.D. Tex. 

Aug. 1, 1985), aff’d mem., 474 U.S. 

1078 (1986) 

Preclearance required for discretionary setting 

of special election dates. 

Haith v. Martin, 618 F. Supp. 410 

(E.D.N.C. 1985), aff’m mem., 477 

U.S. 901 (1986) 

Preclearance required for changes to the 

method of electing state judges. 

Presley v. Etowah County

Commission, 502 U.S. 491 (1992) 

Section 5 does not cover changes in the 

powers and duties of elected officials unrelated 

to the authority to adopt or implement voting 

practices or changes. 

Morse v. Republican Party of 

Virginia, 517 U.S. 273 (1996) 

Preclearance required for changes to eligibility

rules for participation in a political party

convention held to nominate a candidate for 

public office. 

Young v. Fordice, 520 U.S. 273 

(1997) 

Preclearance required for discretionary

changes implemented to enforce the 

requirements of federal law (in this case, the 

National Voter Registration Act of 1993). 

Foreman v. Dallas County, Texas, 

521 U.S. 979 (1997) 

Preclearance required for administrative voting 

changes. 

Lopez v. Monterey County, 525 

U.S. 266 (1999) 

Preclearance required when a covered county

in a noncovered state implements voting 

changes mandated by state law.

Prohibition on 

implementation of 

unprecleared changes 

Lucas v. Townsend, 486 U.S. 1301 

(1988) (Kennedy, J., Circuit 

Justice) 

Sitting as the Circuit Justice, Justice Kennedy

issued an order enjoining a special election that 

had not received Section 5 preclearance. 

Clark v. Roemer, 498 U.S. 954 

(1991) 

Injunction issued to prohibit holding of elections 

that would implement unprecleared voting 

changes. 

59 Allen v. State Board of Elections, 393 U.S. 544 (1969). Section 5 enforcement suits are brought in local district

courts (not the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia), and do not consider whether or not the changes at issue 

are discriminatory. Section 5 enforcement suits, like their preclearance cousins, are tried before a three-judge district

court with a direct appeal to the Supreme Court. Id. 
16 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

Subject Case Holding

Clark v. Roemer, 500 U.S. 9 (1996) In Section 5 enforcement actions, district courts 

are obligated to enjoin holding of any election 

implementing an unprecleared change, except 

perhaps where an extreme circumstance is 

present. 

Lopez v. Monterey County, 519 

U.S. 9 (1996) 

Reaffirmed 1991 holding in Clark. 

Procedures governing 

submission of changes to 

the Attorney General 

McCain v. Lybrand, 465 U.S. 236 

(1984) 

Jurisdictions submitting voting changes to the 

Attorney General for preclearance must identify

with specificity the particular voting changes for 

which preclearance is requested. Related 

voting changes not properly identified in the 

submission are not included in the 

preclearance request, and thus are not 

precleared by operation of law if the Attorney

General preclears the identified changes. In 

addition, preclearance of a change does not 

automatically include preclearance of prior, 

related, unprecleared changes. 

Clark v. Roemer, 500 U.S. 646 

(1991) 

Reaffirmed preclearance submission rules set 

forth in McCain. 

Caption: From July 1, 1982 to June 30, 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court decided numerous cases involving Section 5 coverage, 

implementation of unprecleared changes, and procedures governing submission of changes to the Attorney General. 

Source: Compiled by Mark Posner for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights., 2004.

The Supreme Court’s first decision in a Section 5 enforcement lawsuit, Allen v. State Board of 

Elections (1969), set in place the Court’s broad approach to construing Section 5’s reach with 

regard to the types of changes covered.60 With perhaps one exception since then, the Court has 

remained on the course established in Allen.

61 In the post-1982 period, the Court has held (or 

affirmed lower court rulings) that Section 5 covers voting changes implemented through a state or 

locality’s administrative election machinery (i.e., those not enacted legislatively);62 changes to the 

method of electing state court judges (i.e., Section 5 does not apply only to voting for executive and 

legislative officials);63 changes a political party adopted relating to a public electoral function that 

state law granted the party;64 discretionary changes enacted to implement mandatory provisions of 

60 Id.

61 The one divergent decision since 1982 was the Supreme Court’s determination that Section 5 generally does not

cover changes to the powers and duties of elected officials. See Presley v. Etowah County, 502 U.S. 491 (1992). 

However, also note that changes do not need to be precleared that have been ordered by a federal court and thus do not

reflect the policy preferences of elected officials. See Connor v. Johnson, 402 U.S. 690 (1971). 

62 NAACP v. Hampton County Election Commission, 470 U.S. 166 (1985). 

63 Haith v. Martin, 618 F. Supp. 410 (E.D.N.C. 1985), aff'd, 477 U.S. 901 (1986). 

64 Morse v. Republican Party of Virginia, 517 U.S. 186 (1996). 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 17

the National Voter Registration Act of 1993;65 and state-law-mandated changes where a county is 

covered by Section 5, but the state is not.66

The Court also, in its post-1982 decisions, has continued to interpret Section 5 stringently with 

regard to the statute’s prohibition on the implementation of unprecleared changes. In particular, the 

Court has held that district courts are obligated to enjoin any future implementation of an 

unprecleared change, except perhaps in extraordinary circumstances.67

Lastly, the Court has continued to protect the Justice Department’s preclearance process. Section 5 

specifies that a submitted voting change is automatically precleared if the Attorney General does 

not interpose an objection within 60 days. Subsequently, jurisdictions have claimed, in certain 

instances, that particular changes were precleared by default when their submission to the Justice 

Department was ambiguous, the department was unaware that the submission included the change, 

and the department did not interpose an objection to the submission within the 60-day review 

period. Following the approach established in Allen, the Court has held in its post-1982 decisions 

that it is the covered jurisdiction’s obligation to clearly identify to the Justice Department the 

changes for which it is requesting preclearance. Accordingly, changes that are not clearly identified 

(and that are not otherwise located in the submission by the Justice Department) cannot escape 

review and be automatically precleared by operation of the 60-day requirement.68

Section 5 Preclearance Standard 

The Section 5 preclearance standard seemingly presents a discrimination test that is 

uncompromising and all-encompassing—a voting change may not be implemented if it has either a 

discriminatory purpose or a discriminatory effect.69 Discriminatory “effect” had a specialized 

meaning, pursuant to a 1976 Supreme Court decision in Beer v. United States.

70 In Beer, the Court 

held that a change has a discriminatory effect under Section 5 only when it “would lead to a 

retrogression in the position of racial minorities with respect to their effective exercise of the 

electoral franchise.”71 Thus, under Beer, a voting change that makes minority voters worse off 

violates the Section 5 effect test.72 A change that leaves minority voters in the same position as 

before, or improves their position, does not violate the effect standard, regardless of whether the 

change still minimizes or dilutes minority electoral opportunity.73 

65 Young v. Fordice, 520 U.S. 273 (1997). 

66 Lopez v. Monterey County, 525 U.S. 266 (1999). 

67 Lopez v. Monterey County, 519 U.S. 9 (1996); Clark v. Roemer, 500 U.S. 646 (1991). 

68 Clark v. Roemer, 500 U.S. 646 (1991); McCain v. Lybrand, 465 U.S. 236 (1984). 

69 42 U.S.C.S. 1973c (2006). See also Reno v. Bossier Parish School Board, 528 U.S. 320, 363 (2000) (Souter, J., 

concurring in part and dissenting in part). 

70 425 U.S. 130 (1976). 

71 Id. at 141. 

72 Section 5 Procedures, 28 C.F.R. § 51.54(a) (2005) . 

73 Lockhart v. United States, 460 U.S. 125 (1983) (clarifying that changes that are neither ameliorative nor 

retrogressive do not violate the Section 5 effect standard). 
18 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

The Supreme Court examined the prevailing construction of the Section 5 standard in 1995, in its 

racial gerrymandering decision in Miller v. Johnson.

74 The Court held that Georgia’s post-1990 

congressional redistricting plan was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. However, the Court 

also found that the Justice Department’s objections to a Georgia plan presented for preclearance 

were not based on an appropriate application of the Section 5 test but, instead, rested on a 

department policy of interposing objections to maximize the number of majority-minority districts 

in plans subject to Section 5 review.75 The basis for the Court’s decision rested in equal protection. 

Because race was the predominant, overriding factor in setting district boundaries, the redistricting 

efforts were subject to strict scrutiny.76 The Court did not accept as a compelling interest the need to 

satisfy an executive branch policy or practice of maximizing majority-minority districts in the face 

of the statutory purpose of ensuring that “no voting and procedural changes would lead to a 

retrogression in the position of racial minorities with respect to their effective exercise of the 

electoral franchise.”77

The Court directly addressed the Section 5 preclearance standard in 1997, in Reno v. Bossier Parish 

School Board (“Bossier Parish I”), a declaratory judgment action in which the parish school board 

sought preclearance for its post-1990 redistricting plan.78 It held that Section 5 preclearance may 

not be denied based on a Section 2 results violation,79 and thus invalidated the Justice Department 

regulation that specified that a “clear” results violation should trigger an objection. This holding 

also meant that violations of other provisions of the Voting Rights Act, including Sections 4(f)(4), 

203, and 208, may not provide the basis for an objection. The Court reasoned that allowing 

objections based on Section 2 was inconsistent with its holding in Beer that Section 5 was designed 

to prevent only those effects that are retrogressive, and that the legislative history of the 1982 

extension did not support the allowance of these objections. 

74 515 U.S. 900 (1995). 

75 Id. at 924. The district court’s opinion is also highly illuminating in its discussion of the Justice Department’s 

enforcement record. The court harshly criticized the “close cooperation” between the Justice Department and the 

ACLU—a strong advocate of minority district maximization—in the preclearance process, calling the frequent 

communication between the two “disturbing” and an “embarrassment.” The court noted that the department was more 

amenable to the opinions of the ACLU than to those of the Attorney General of the State of Georgia, and that it had 

cultivated a number of partisan “informants” in the state legislature. 864 F. Supp. 1354 (S.D.Ga. 1994), 1362, 1367. 

Moreover, the court found that throughout the preclearance process, “demographic manipulation became DOJ’s 

guiding light,” although the agency denied a max-black plan served as the benchmark against which it compared 

Georgia’s redistricting efforts. Id. at 1364. But the court found that the Justice Department’s districting requirements 

had nothing to do with any criterion but race, setting a dangerous precedent of requiring proportional representation 

and inhibiting future redistricting efforts. Id. at 1384–86. The Supreme Court similarly noted that “Instead of grounding 

its objections on evidence of a discriminatory purpose, it would appear the [department] was driven by its policy of 

maximizing majority-black districts,” thereby expanding its Section 5 authority beyond what Congress intended and the 

Court previously upheld. 515 U.S. 900, 924, 925. 

76 Id. at 920. 

77 Id. at 926. 

78 520 U.S. 471 (1997). 

79 A “results violation” refers to a voting plan or proposal intentionally drawn to minimize minority voting strength, and 

which has a discriminatory result in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 19

After remand, the Bossier Parish litigation again came before the Court in January 2000 (“Bossier 

Parish II”).80 The Court now faced the question of whether the discriminatory intent prong of the 

preclearance standard applied to any electoral changes with discriminatory intent or only those with 

an intent to retrogress. The Court held that the Section 5 purpose standard is limited to a 

determination of whether an intent to cause retrogression, not simply maintain the status quo— 

however discriminatory the status quo might be—motivated the voting change. The Court again 

based its holding on its prior decision in Beer. Other discriminatory barriers, the Court reasoned, 

could always be attacked in an action under Section 2.81

Most recently, in 2003, the Supreme Court refined the retrogression standard. In Georgia v. 

Ashcroft, a declaratory judgment action concerning the state’s post-2000 state senate redistricting 

plan, the Court held that the retrogression analysis must examine all relevant circumstances in 

considering how redistricting plans affect the opportunity of minority voters to elect candidates of 

their choice.82 This may include the opportunity to exert substantial influence over districts in which 

minorities are unable to elect candidates of their choice, as well as the opportunity for candidates 

elected by minority voters to exert legislative leadership, influence, and power.83 In short, no single 

statistic provides a shortcut to evaluating retrogression in redistricting plans.84 (See appendix table 

A-1 for a list of merit decisions in declaratory judgment actions). 

Compliance with the Preclearance Requirement 

The issue of noncompliance with the Section 5 requirement—jurisdictions failing to submit voting 

changes or enforcing changes to which an objection was interposed—appears to have receded in 

importance during the current extension period. As noted, the Supreme Court has been steadfast in 

enforcing the procedural aspects of the preclearance requirement, and the routine of submitting 

voting changes for Section 5 review generally is well embedded in the business rules of covered 

jurisdictions. In addition, it appears the carryover from 1960s and 1970s noncompliance is almost 

entirely gone, as the Justice Department now has had more than two decades to identify and review 

changes from that time period that continued to be implemented. 

Nonetheless, since July 1982, the Justice Department has filed 32 enforcement actions, or lawsuits, 

under Section 5 to demand compliance with the preclearance requirement (it filed 14 in the 1980s, 

18 in the 1990s, and none in the current decade). The department also has participated as amicus 

curiae in the district court in another 32 enforcement actions since July 1982 (seven in the 1980s, 

19 in the 1990s, and six in the current decade), and has participated as amicus curiae in all Section 5 

enforcement actions the Supreme Court decided since July 1982. With respect to Section 5 

declaratory judgment actions, the Supreme Court rejected the Justice Department’s position as a 

defendant three out of four times during the current reauthorization period. During that period, the 

80 528 U.S. 320 (2000). 

81 Id. at 341. 

82 539 U.S. 461, 479 (2003). 

83 Id. at 481–83. 

84 Id. at 480. 
20 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

Supreme Court has upheld the Justice Department’s amicus approach six times (or in 75 percent of 

cases) and rejected the department’s approach twice (or 25 percent), once as a plaintiff and once as 

amicus curiae.85

Justice Department Preclearance Determinations 

The preclearance statistics used in this report require some initial explanation and qualification. The 

statistics count Justice Department preclearance reviews in two ways: voting changes and 

submissions. A voting change is any “standard, practice or procedure with respect to voting 

different from that [which previously was] in force or effect.”86 A “submission” is a group of 

changes submitted together by a particular jurisdiction (a state or local entity) to the Justice 

Department for preclearance.87

The change and submission numbers used in this report are, to a large extent, those the Justice 

Department provided. The department uses computer databases to maintain an historical record of

all voting changes submitted for preclearance review since 1965. The data for preclearance activity 

beginning in 1990 are recorded in a modern relational database that allows for fairly precise 

counting of all changes and submissions. Two systems preceded it, which, for several reasons, were 

less accurate in their historical reporting, and which make the department’s pre-1990 data 

approximate. Overall, however, the statistics the department reported are relatively accurate and 

provide a reliable picture of levels and trends of preclearance activity. 

The report also includes additional data that are based on an analysis of the Justice Department’s 

objection letters and its listing of objections. The additional data provide insights into the 

substantive bases for the objections (purpose, retrogression, or other Voting Rights Act 

requirements) and the types of changes that have generated the most objections. 

Nearly all the preclearance figures relate to changes submitted pursuant to Section 5, although the 

data include both Section 5 and Section 3(c) submissions. Section 5 accounts for more than 

99 percent of the submissions made since 1965, and the Justice Department has interposed only one 

objection to a Section 3(c) submission.88 No district court has denied preclearance to a voting 

change submitted pursuant to Section 3(c). 

The report examines the overall trend in Justice Department’s objections to submissions and 

submitted changes between 1965 and 2004. The stature of a Justice Department objection as a 

possible indicator of a Section 5 violation is well established despite criticisms of the Justice 

Department’s record. This is preferable to other indicators, such as declaratory judgments or 

85 U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, “Significant Cases Under the Voting Rights Act,” 

email submission to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Mar. 2, 2006. 

86 42 U.S.C. § 1973(c) (2000); 42 U.S.C. §1973a(c). 

87 Examples include the submission of a state statute that makes several voting changes, the submission of one or more 

annexations adopted on the same or different dates, and the submission of a redistricting plan with related precinct and 

polling place changes. 

88 That objection, in 1991, was to New Mexico’s state senate redistricting plan. 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 21

withdrawal letters because these categories are so small as compared to Justice Department 

objections. 

Notably, a vast majority of jurisdictions use the administrative process to preclear proposed voting 

changes.89 Thus, relatively few jurisdictions seek declaratory judgments from the U.S. District 

Court of the District of Columbia. It is likely, too, that in relation to the number of proposed 

changes submitted to the Justice Department for preclearance, the numbers of withdrawal letters are 

small.90 Thus Justice Department objections are a useful indicator of potential discriminatory 

actions, and analysis of its trends is instructive. The other two indicators when viewed in 

conjunction with objections slightly raise the level of questionable proposed voting changes.91 The 

Justice Department does not have the capacity to monitor all the covered jurisdictions to ensure that 

all voting changes are precleared prior to implementation. Therefore, it is possible that some 

discriminatory voting changes could be enacted into law without benefit of the preclearance 

process. In this sense, the numbers of objections interposed could undercount such voting 

changes.92 On the other hand, Justice Department objections could overrepresent discriminatory 

voting changes to the extent that it could raise questionable objections. This prospect is hardly 

academic in light of the Justice Department’s record before the courts.93

Section 5 Determinations Since 1965 

Since 1965, the percentage of objectionable proposed voting changes have declined steadily to the 

point of relative insignificance. This basic finding applies to nationwide submissions as well as to 

submissions in nearly every state; it applies to every single category of submissions, particularly to 

those categories that are most numerous; and it applies whether one considers objections either as 

a percentage of the number of individual submitted changes or as a percentage of the number of

separate submissions. During this period, the number of proposed voting change submissions to the 

Justice Department has increased explosively while the percentage of objections has fallen sharply. 

From August 1965 to June 30, 2004, jurisdictions filed 117,057 voting change submissions for 

89 Bradley J. Schlozman, acting assistant attorney general, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice, testimony

before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives, Oct. 25,

2005, p. 2. 

90 This is clearly seen in figure 1 of the report of the National Commission on the Voting Rights Act. Figure 1 presents, 

among others, objections interposed and a composite variable made up of objections, unsuccessful declaratory 

judgments, and withdrawal letters in five-year intervals. Data are available for both objections and the composite

variable for five periods, beginning in 1981–1985. In all but one period (2001–2004), the contribution of objections to

the composite variable dwarfs the combined contributions of the other two indicators. Figure 2 shows the annual trends 

of the three indicators, affirming that Justice Department objections are the critical indicator for the period under 

review. This is not to deny the relevance and value of the other two indicators in understanding Section 5 

discriminatory activities but to show their importance in relation to objections in the time span under review. National 

Commission on the Voting Rights Act, Protecting Minority Voters, figures 1 and 2, no page number. 

91 See National Commission on the Voting Rights Act, Protecting Minority Voters, figure 1, no page number. 

92 National Commission on the Voting Rights Act, Protecting Minority Voters, p.52. 

93 See footnote 75. Note too that in regard to Section 5 declaratory judgment actions, during the current extension 

period, the Supreme Court rejected the Justice Department’s position as defendant three out of four times. 
22 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

Justice Department review. The department interposed objections to 1,400 or a mere 1.2 percent. 

(See table 4.) 

The Commission grouped submissions and objections into three periods corresponding to relevant 

Voting Rights Act legislative episodes: 1965–1974; 1975–1982; and 1982–2004.94 Submissions to 

the Justice Department in the first, second, and third periods comprised 1.3 percent, 11.9 percent, 

and a substantial 86.8 percent, respectively, of all submissions (117,057). Between the periods 

1965–1974 and 1975–1982, the number of submissions grew sharply, from 1,542 to 13,874, 

or increased 799.7 percent, and then to 101,641, a smaller increase of 632.6 percent, in 1982–

2004.95

The objections the Justice Department interposed in the first, second, and third periods comprised 

15.6 percent, 30.6 percent, and 53.7 percent, respectively, of all objections (1,400). Between 1965–

1974 and 1975–1982, objections interposed grew from 219 to 429, or increased 95.9 percent, and 

rose to 752,96 or increased 75.3 percent in 1982–2004.97 The number of objections the Justice 

Department interposed in the first period was 14.2 percent. Between the first and second periods, 

the percentage decreased substantially to 3.1 percent, and fell further to 0.7 percent in the third 

period, 98 with the current extension period having the lowest level of objections. (See table 4.) 

Most of the years with higher objection rates are in the first period. The second period included 

years with much lower objection rates and the third period, years with even lower rates. (See figure 

3.) In addition, as discussed below, the third period may be divided into two smaller periods, 1982 

to 1994, when the objection rate to submissions was 1.2 percent, and 1995 to 2004, when the 

objection rate was 0.2 percent. The most striking finding from this analysis is that the percentage of 

objections to submissions decreased dramatically between the first period and the second and 

dropped further in the third even as the number of submissions increased sharply. 

94 Data in the first period covered August 1965–1974 or 9.2 years; in the second period, 1975–1981 or 6.5 years; and in

the third period, 1982–June 2004 or 23 years. Note that Congress also reauthorized the act in 1970, so the first period 

actually covers two legislative episodes. 

95 The yearly average number of submissions (submissions divided by number of years in the period) for each of the 

three periods is 168, 2,134 and 4,419 respectively, reflecting an increase of 1,173.5 percent between the first and 

second periods, and 107.0 percent between the second and third periods. 96 The Justice Department interposed 53.7 percent of the objections in the current extension period. This is consistent

with a finding of the National Commission on the Voting Rights Act, that a majority of objections were interposed in

the current extensions period. Specifically, by the National Commission’s definition of objection (referring to a Justice 

Department objection letter, not the change or changes referred to in the letter), 56 percent of the objections occurred 

after August 5, 1982. This is largely a factor of the large numbers of submissions during the current lengthy extension 

period. The National Commission on the Voting Rights Act fails to note that, relative to submissions, objections have 

been exceptionally low during this period. Protecting Minority Voters The Voting Rights Act at Work 1982–2005, A 

Report by The National Commission on the Voting Rights Act, February 2006, pp. 3, 51. 

97 The yearly average number of objections (objections divided by number of years in the period) for each of the three 

periods is 24, 66, and 33, respectively, reflecting an increase of 177.3 percent between the first and second periods, and 

a decrease of 50.5 percent between the second and third periods. 

98 Objection rates based on yearly average number of submissions parallel this pattern. 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 23

TABLE 4 

Preclearance Statistics by Submissions and Objections (August 1965 to December 2004) 

1965–1974 1975–1981 1982–2004 Total

(8/65–9/30) (10/1–12/31) 1/1–12/31 

Submissions 1,542 13,874 101,641 117,057 

Objections 219 429 752 1400 

Objections as a percentage of submissions 14.2% 3.1% 0.7% 1.2%

Caption: During the three legislative periods, the number of submissions rose significantly while the percentage of 

objections fell steeply. 

Note: Data in 1965–1974 covered about 9.2 years, in 1975–1981, about 6.5 years, and in 1982–2004, 23 years. Data for 1974 through 

1979 are for fiscal years. 

Source: Derived from Bradley J. Schlozman, acting assistant attorney general, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice, testimony

before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives, “Administrative Review of Voting 

Changes,” Oct. 25, 2005, no page number.

The following analysis presents objections in relation to submissions and submitted changes 

annually for the entire Voting Rights Act period. This permits a comparison of two distinct methods 

of counting objections: (1) objections to total submissions which may include one or more voting 

changes, and (2) actual numbers of submitted changes to which the Justice Department interposed 

objections. Regardless of counting methods, the number of objections is low (see right axis on 

figures 1 and 2) compared to the number of submissions and submitted changes (see left axes). 

Submissions exhibit a predominantly upward trend with modest fluctuations, peaking in 2002 

(5,910). Objections to submissions peaked in 1976 (124). Thereafter, the trend fluctuated 

downward, attaining a second smaller peak in 1992 (77). Subsequently, the number of objections 

decreased substantially to 3 in 2004. The number of submitted changes grew, though showing 

fluctuations between 1965 and its two peaks—first in 1986 (20,314) and again in 1992 (22,349)—

and then decreased in subsequent years to 10,388 in 2004. Objections to submitted changes also 

peaked in 1986 at 639 and then fluctuated downward, leveling off to 5 in 2004. 
24 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

FIGURE 1 

Objections to Submissions (August 1965 to June 2004) 

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

1965196619671968196919701971197219731974197519761977197819791980198119821983198419851986198719881989199019911992199319941995199619971998199920002001200220032004

Year

Submissions

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Objections

Submissions Objections

Caption: Submissions exhibited a predominantly upward trend peaking in 2002. Objections to submissions 

peaked in 1976 then fluctuated downward. 

Source: Derived from Bradley J. Schlozman, acting assistant attorney general, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of 

Justice, testimony before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of 

Representatives, “Administrative Review of Voting Changes,” Oct. 25, 2005, no page number. 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 25

FIGURE 2 

 Objections to Submitted Changes (August 1965 to December 2004) 

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

1965196619671968196919701971197219731974197519761977197819791980198119821983198419851986198719881989199019911992199319941995199619971998199920002001200220032004

Year

Submitted changes

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

Objections

Submitted changes Objections

Caption: The number of submitted changes grew peaking 1986 and again in 1992 and then decreased in 

subsequent years. Objections to submitted changes also peaked in 1986 and then decreased substantially. 

Source: Compiled from U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, Submission Tracking and 

Processing System (STAPS) data, as provided to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Sept. 20, 2004. 

The Commission also examined objections as a percentage of submissions from 1965 through 2004 

and identified a clear declining objection trend. (See figure 3.) For a vast majority of the years, 

objections constituted a small proportion of yearly submissions. For example, objections constituted 

less than 1 percent of submissions for 18 of the 40 years, or 45 percent of years, and less than 

5 percent for 14 years, or 35 percent of years. Furthermore, the percentage of objections interposed 

is highest between 1968 and 1974, declines between 1975 and 1981, and reaches a sustained low 

period between 1982 and 2004. During the Voting Rights Act reauthorizations in 1970 and 1975, 

objections constituted only 6.7 and 7.6 percent of submissions, respectively. During the 1982 

reauthorization, the comparable figure was 2.3 percent. 
26 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

FIGURE 3 

Objections as a Percentage of Submissions (August 1965 to June 30, 2004) 

0.0

20.0

40.0

60.0

80.0

100.0

120.0

1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000

Year

Percent

Caption: In the period 1965–2004, the percentage of objections to submissions evidenced a declining trend. 

Source: Bradley J. Schlozman, acting assistant attorney general, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice, testimony before the 

Subcommittee on the Constitution, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives, “Administrative Review of Voting Changes,” 

Oct. 25, 2005, no page number..

The Commission performed a parallel analysis of objections to submitted changes (See figure 4). 

The pattern of findings is essentially similar: submitted changes increased robustly between each of 

the three legislative periods while objections decreased dramatically between the first and second 

periods, then fell and remained low in the third period. An overview of objections between 1965–

2004 showed a pronounced declining trend in objections rates between 1965 and 1974, and the 

lowest objection rates between 1982 and 2004. (See figure 4.) Thus, whether compared with 

submissions or with submitted changes, objections decline steeply and dramatically over time. 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 27

FIGURE 4 

Objections as a Percentage of Submitted Changes (August 1965 to June 30, 2004) 

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

19651967

1969

1971

197319751977

19791981

1983198519871989

1991

1993

1995199719992001

2003

Year

Percent

VRA 1970

0.8

VRA 1975

5.2

VRA 1965

0.0

VRA 1982

0.8

Caption: In the period 1965–2004, the percentage of objections to submitted changes evidenced a declining trend. 

Note: Data for 1982 were derived by adding data for the first six months to data for the second six months. 

(See appendix tables A-4 and A-5.)

Source: Compiled from U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, Submission Tracking and Processing System 

(STAPS) data, as provided to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Sept. 20, 2004.

The National Commission on the Voting Rights Act (NCVRA) recently performed a similar 

analysis and found that objections “reached historic highs in the early 1990s.”99 However, its 

analysis is misleading in two respects. 

First, the text portion of the NCVRA report failed to note the steadily declining trend in objections 

relative to submissions over the last 40 years, although data in the report appendix confirm this 

trend. Furthermore, the percentage of submissions resulting in objections declined substantially. 

During some periods, the absolute number of objections increased, but merely as a function of 

increases in the number of submissions. Over the entire period, the trend in absolute objections 

declined. Objection numbers should be understood in this context. 

Second, the Commission’s analysis showed that objections peaked in either 1976 or 1986, 

depending on the methodology chosen for counting objections. The peak did not occur in the early 

1990s as NCVRA concluded. 

99 National Commission on the Voting Rights Act, Protecting Minority Voters, p. 101. As noted, NCVRA is a 

bipartisan coalition established by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law to determine whether, and to

what extent, voter discrimination has occurred since the last Voting Rights Act reauthorization in 1982. For a complete

list of sponsors, see footnote 13. 
28 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

Section 5 Determinations in the Current Extension Period 

The current extension period accounts for a very high proportion—almost 90 percent—of all 

changes submitted since 1965, although it represents just a little more than half of the overall time 

period that Section 5 has been in effect. It appears that this in part was a product of covered 

jurisdictions adopting a larger number of voting changes in the past two decades. In addition, 

several post-1982 court decisions clarified the scope of the Section 5 requirement, resulting in 

jurisdictions filing more submissions.100 Jurisdictions also are submitting changes in a more timely 

fashion, i.e., immediately after ratifying proposed changes. In the 1960s, and to a lesser extent in 

the 1970s, jurisdictions often did not make timely submissions, or never submitted their changes 

(typically because they were mooted by subsequent changes that were submitted and precleared).101

It should be noted that covered jurisdictions rarely utilize the alternative procedure of seeking 

preclearance from the District Court for the District of Columbia. Since July 1982, covered 

jurisdictions have filed 41 declaratory judgment actions. The almost exclusive reliance on the 

Justice Department’s administrative preclearance mechanism continued the pattern of prior years, 

during which only 27 preclearance suits were filed. (See appendix table A-2.) Nearly half of the 

Section 5 preclearance suits filed since July 1982 involved redistrictings, and almost all the others 

concerned election method changes, the creation of additional judgeships, annexations, and the 

consolidation of city and county (or parish) governments. 

The district court issued very few declaratory judgment decisions and dismissed most filings 

(35 out of 41, or 85.4 percent) without a decision on the merits.102 (See appendix table A-2.) The 

court precleared five cases over the Justice Department’s opposition (four judgeship cases and 

Bossier Parish); granted preclearance with the department’s concurrence in three cases; and denied 

preclearance in three cases. Although these decisions are few in number, they had a significant 

impact on subsequent Justice Department determinations. (See appendix table A-1.) 

100 In 1986, the Supreme Court affirmed district court rulings that the discretionary setting of a special election date is 

covered and that changes in the method of electing state court judges are covered. (See table 3.) Special election 

submissions in particular became common after the Supreme Court’s affirmance, and accounted for 7 percent of all 

submissions from July 1982 through June 2004. 

101 This occurred in particular with regard to voting changes adopted during Section 5’s initial years. The most extreme 

systemic failure to submit occurred during the first five years, from August 1965 through 1970. During this period, 

covered jurisdictions submitted a mere 729 changes. The failure to submit occurred in part because the Section 5 

requirement was new and unique, in part because the Justice Department did not institute a clearly defined and welladvertised preclearance procedure until September 1971 (when it promulgated the first iteration of its Procedures for 

the Administration of Section 5), in part because the scope of changes covered by Section 5 did not become clear until 

1969 (when the Supreme Court issued its decision in Allen v. State Board of Elections), and in part because the newly 

covered jurisdictions vehemently opposed the new requirement. During the next five years (1971 to 1975), compliance 

increased (about 6,900 changes were submitted during that period), but nonsubmission problems continued. See

appendix table A-4. See also U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, The Voting Rights Act: Ten Years After, pp. 337–338;

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, The Voting Rights Act: Unfulfilled Goals, pp. 70–73; 1982 Senate Report, pp. 7–9;

1981 House Report, pp. 11–13. 

102 For example, a number of jurisdictions that sought judicial preclearance of their redistricting plans decided after 

filing suit to abandon the disputed plan, and adopt a new plan and submit it for Justice Department administrative 

approval, which was granted. See appendix table A-2, Summary Declaratory Judgment Statistics for All Years (through 

June 30, 2004). 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 29

Numbers of Objections 

As previously noted, the Justice Department interposed the smallest percentage of objections during 

the current extension period, as compared to the two other extension periods examined in this 

report, despite a significantly greater number of submitted changes. The current extension period 

arguably could be further divided into two distinct periods of objections. From July 1982 to 1994, 

the Justice Department objected to a larger number of changes (although still a small proportion 

relative to previous years, 1.0 percent of the submitted changes, compared with 1.2 percent and 

5.5 percent in the previous periods); in subsequent years, beginning in 1995, the number of 

objections was much smaller. (See table 5 and appendix table A-3.)103 The average number of 

objections per year also decreased substantially between the first and second halves of the period, 

from 161 to 13. 

TABLE 5 

Submitted Changes and Objections in Two Distinct Periods, 1982–1994 and 1995–2004 

Subject 1982–1994 1995–2004 Total

Submitted changes 210,900 148,552 359,452 

Objections 2,089 134 2,223 

Objections as a percentage of submitted changes 1.0% —a 0.6%

Average change objections per year 161 13 97 

Caption: The Justice Department interposed a larger number of objections between 1982 and 1994 than it did between 1995 

and 2004. 

a percent too small to represent.

Source: Compiled from U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, Submission Tracking and Processing System 

(STAPS) data, as provided to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Sept. 20, 2004. 

Objections by Types of Changes 

The Commission analyzed the types of changes to which the Justice Department interposed 

objections during the current extension period (1982–2004). The six change types in order of 

number of submitted changes are (1) precinct/polling place/absentee vote changes, 43.7 percent of 

all submitted changes, (2) annexations/boundary changes, 20.7 percent,104 (3) voter registration, 

103 Several factors may explain the decrease in the number of objections beginning in 1995 to the extent that this

decrease is not merely the continuation of a 40-year trend. First, Section 5 jurisdictions may have adopted fewer 

discriminatory changes. Second, the Justice Department may have eased its enforcement efforts beginning in the mid1990s. Third, the department may have inflated the number of objections in the early 1990s by improperly interposing 

objections to redistricting plans. Finally, court decisions throughout the 1990s, such as Miller v. Johnson and Bossier 

Parish I, may have caused at least a portion of the decrease. Stated in another way, covered jurisdictions may be 

anticipating possible Justice Department objections more effectively, and the standards governing those objections may

have been clarified or changed by recent Supreme Court opinions. 104 It should be noted that not all annexations are racially suspicious. Some argue that annexations are nearly always

motivated by economic and other nondiscriminatory considerations. See, for example, Thernstrom, Whose Votes 

Count?, p. 5; Janelle D. Allen, “Carolina Power & Light v. City of Asheville, Municipal Annexation in North Carolina: 

the Pros, the Cons, and the Judiciary,” North Carolina Central Law Journal, vol. 27 (2005), p. 224 (hereafter cited as 

Allen, “Municipal Annexation in North Carolina”); Karen E. Ubell, “Consent Not Required: Municipal Annexation in

North Carolina,” North Carolina Law Review, vol. 83 (2005), p. 1634 (hereafter cited as Ubell, “Consent Not

Required”); Alison Yurko, “A Practical Perspective About Annexation in Florida,” Stetson Law Review, vol. 25 
30 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

11.4 percent, (4) special elections, 6.6 percent, (5) methods of election, 4.2 percent, and 

(6) redistrictings, 2.4 percent. (See table 6 and figure 5.) 

(1996), p. 699 (hereafter cited as Yurko, “Annexation in Florida”). See also discussion on pp. 33–34. 

Regardless of the type of change, the rate of objections to submitted changes during this period was 

low, ranging from 0.1 percent to 4.2 percent. Three of six (or half of all) change types showed rates 

of objections well below 1 percent. Notably, the top four in number of submitted changes evidenced 

distinctly low objection rates, between 0.1 and 1.3 percent. The category including precincts, 

polling places, and absentee voting represented the largest share of submitted changes 

(43.7 percent), yet the Justice Department interposed almost no objections to these types of changes 

(at a rate of 0.1 percent). This category and voter registration changes combined made up more than 

half of the substituted changes, yet accounted for a negligible percent of objections (0.2 percent 

combined). On the other hand, although methods of elections and redistrictings made up the 

smallest percentages of submitted changes (4.2 and 2.4 percents, respectively), they were marked 

by the highest rates of objections, 3.6 and 4.2 percent. (See table 6.) 

TABLE 6 

Submitted Changes and Objections by Type (July 1, 1982 to June 30, 2004) 

Submitted 

change type 

as percentage 

of total 

submitted 

changes

Objections 

as percentage of the 

submitted change 

type

Precincts, polling place, absentee vote 43.7% 0.1% 

Annexations, boundary changes 20.7% 1.3%

Voter registration 11.4% 0.1% 

Special elections 6.6% 0.2% 

Methods of elections 4.2% 3.6% 

Redistrictings 2.4% 4.2%

Total 88.9% 0.6%

Caption: Regardless of the change type, the Justice Department interposed few objections from 1982–2004. 

Note: Excludes submitted changes classified as "other," hence percents in the first column do not sum to 100. 

Sources: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, “Number of Changes to Which Objections Have Been 

Interposed by Type for All Calendar Years” and “Number of Changes by Type of Change for All Calendar Years,” Submission Tracking 

and Processing System (STAPS) Statistics Reports, Sept. 20, 2004. 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 31

 FIGURE 5 

Submitted Changes and Objections by Type (July 1, 1982 to June 30, 2004) 

Precinct, polling place submitted

157,148

Annexations submitted

74,289

Voter registration submitted

40,875

Special elections submitted

23,585

Methods of election submitted

15,147

Redistrictings submitted

8,622

Precinct, polling place objections

82

Annexation objections

1,001

Voter registration objections

25

Special election objections

49

Methods of election objections

543

Redistricting objections

364

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

80,000

90,000

100,000

110,000

120,000

130,000

140,000

150,000

160,000

Polling Precincts Annexation Voter registration Special elections Methods of

Elections

Redistricting

Type of change

Submitted changes and objections

Caption: The number of objections interposed for each type of submitted change is small in the period1982–2004.

Sources: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, “Number of Changes to Which Objections Have Been 

Interposed by Type for All Calendar Years” and “Number of Changes by Type of Change for All Calendar Years,” Submission 

Tracking and Processing System (STAPS) Statistics Reports, Sept. 20, 2004.

Dividing the extension period into two distinct subsets (1982–1994 and 1995–2004) reveals a 

significant decrease in all types of changes to which the Justice Department objected. For example, 

from July 1982 through 1994, the Justice Department objected to 978 annexations, but only 23 

between 1996 and 2004. In other words, 97.7 percent of all annexation objections occurred during 

the first period. During the first period, the department objected to 512 election method changes 

(94.3 percent); thereafter, it objected to 31. It objected to 318 redistricting plans in the first period 

(87.4 percent), but only 46 in the second. (See table 7). 
32 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

TABLE 7 

Objections by Type of Change, 1982–1994 and 1995–2004 

Type of change 1982–1994 1995–2004 Total

Annexations, boundary changes 97.7% (978) 2.3% (23) 100% (1,001) 

Methods of elections 94.3% (512) 5.7% (31) 100% (543) 

Redistrictings 87.4% (318) 12.6% (46) 100% (364) 

Precincts, polling place, absentee ballots 90.2% (74) 9.8% (8) 100% (82) 

Special elections 98.0% (48) 2.0% (1) 100% (49) 

Voter registration 56.0% (14) 44.0% (11) 100% (25) 

Other 91.2% (145) 8.8% (14) 100% (159) 

All changes 95.4% (2,089) 4.6% (134) 100% (2,223) 

Caption: Between 1982 and 1994 the Justice Department objected to a substantially higher number of annexation proposals,

redistrictings, and method of election changes than in the period between 1995 and 2004. 

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, “Number of Changes to Which Objections Have Been Interposed 

by Type for All Calendar Years,” Submission Tracking and Processing System (STAPS) Statistics Report, Sept. 20, 2004. 

A Detailed Examination of Changes Most Frequently Denied 

Forty-five percent of the objections the Justice Department interposed in the 1982–2004 period 

concerned annexations and boundary changes (though the total number of annexations that were the 

subject of an objection is somewhat misleading since one objection may concern the cumulative 

impact of scores or hundreds of small, individual annexations).105 Methods of election and 

redistrictings are distant second and third, 24.4 and 16.4 percent, respectively. (See figure 6.) 

Together, these three change types comprised an overwhelming 85.8 percent of all objections 

interposed. Notably, they accounted for only a little more than a quarter of all proposed changes, 

27.3 percent. It is also remarkable that precinct/polling places/absentee ballot changes made up only 

3.7 percent of all objections, despite accounting for the highest percentage of submitted changes, at 

43.7 percent. (See figure 6 and appendix table A-5.) Thus, the great majority of objections involved 

alleged vote dilution issues (regarding the constituencies used to elect officials and the rules for 

determining election outcomes), and relatively few objections concerned the mechanics of running 

elections. 

105 See footnote 87 infra. 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 33

 FIGURE 6 

 Percentage of Submitted Changes and Objections by Change Type (July 1, 1982 to 

 June 30, 2004) 

20.7

4.2 2.4

43.7

6.6

11.4

45.0

24.4

16.4

3.7 2.2 1.1

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Annexations,

boundary

changes

Methods of

election

Redistrictings Precinct/polling

place/absentee 

ballot

Special

elections

Voter

registration

Type of Change

Percent

Submitted changes by change type as percent all submitted changes

Objections by change type as percent of all objections

Caption: The Justice Department interposed the highest percentage of objections to changes involving 

annexations, boundary changes; methods of election; and redistrictings.

Sources: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, “Number of Changes to Which Objections Have

Been Interposed by Type for All Calendar Years” and “Number of Changes by Type of Change for All Calendar Years,” 

Submission Tracking and Processing System (STAPS) Statistics Reports, Sept. 20, 2004.

The annexation, method of election, and redistricting objections (i.e., those changes tied to vote 

dilution concerns) merit further analysis. 

Annexations. Annexation objections are of two types. By far the most common is the dilution 

objection, in which a city (or other jurisdiction) annexes population that significantly reduces its 

minority population percentage. The Supreme Court held in 1975 that dilutive annexations violate 

the Section 5 effect test, unless the election system in the post-annexation city fairly reflects 

minority voting strength (typically, a system that uses districts or a mixture of district and at-large 

seats).106 If the election system does not meet this test, the Justice Department denies preclearance. 

The department will withdraw the objection if the jurisdiction adopts, and obtains preclearance for, 

an election system that satisfies the “fairly reflects” test. The Justice Department’s diminution 

standard, as formulated by the Supreme Court, presents many complexities and raises concerns 

among those who do not support its underlying assumptions. The department has denied 

preclearance to annexations that result in even slight reductions in black voter populations and 

demanded the creation of single-member districts, but some argue that this may not be the best 

strategy to ensure equal voting rights. 

106 Richmond v. United States, 422 U.S. 358 (1975). See also of Petersburg v. United States, 354 F. Supp. 1021 

(D.D.C. 1972), aff’d, 410 U.S. 962 (1973) (same holding); Section 5 Procedures, 28 C.F.R. § 51.61(c) (2005). 
34 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

The second type of annexation objection occurs when a city makes an annexation decision based on 

racially selective factors. The Justice Department will withdraw a selectivity objection if the city 

subsequently annexes the area that was rejected for discriminatory reasons. From July 1982 through 

June 2004 the Justice Department interposed objections to seven cities’ selective annexations.107

Although annexations and boundary changes account for the largest proportion of objections, some

scholars offer evidence that annexations nearly always occur for economic, political, urban 

development and other nondiscriminatory reasons.108 For example, municipalities often seek to 

annex neighboring rural or suburban geographical areas as means to increasing their revenue flow 

from states when local allocations depend on population estimates. Such annexations, if successful, 

may increase labor forces and commensurately the number of property owners, individuals, and 

businesses in surrounding communities eligible to pay taxes to the municipality. Jurisdictions 

benefit from larger bases from which they collect taxes to support police, fire, water, sewer, and 

other essential services. Individuals in annexed communities, including African American residents, 

may favor border changes when obtaining such services under alternative private agreements is 

expensive.109 

Method of election objections. These objections involve different types of changes.110 Using this 

counting method, a large proportion (28.7 percent) concerns the adoption of provisions that limit 

the opportunity of minority voters to elect candidates of their choice in the context of at-large 

elections. These include the adoption of a majority vote requirement (12.8 percent), and the 

adoption of provisions that preclude voters from engaging in single-shot voting (i.e., voting for less 

than a full slate of candidates in an at-large system to aid a single favored candidate, 15.9 percent), 

such as limiting candidacy to a specific seat or residency requirements for candidates, or that may 

limit the opportunity to do so effectively, such as staggered terms.111 (See figure 7.) The Justice 

Department typically bases these objections on retrogression, and they have been a staple of 

Section 5 enforcement since its enactment. 

107 It is important to note that in several of the covered states it often is the case that each annexation is small (perhaps 

just a single house or a few houses) and an objection may encompass a large group of annexations adopted over a 

period of time (the most extreme example being a single 1986 objection to 525 annexations by a South Carolina town). 

The Justice Department’s annexation objections since July 1982 dealt with a total of 35 cities and two city courts, and 

the department also interposed objections to deannexations by four other cities and to a boundary change between two 

counties. 

108 Thernstrom, Whose Votes Count?, pp. 140–43. 

See, for example, Thernstrom, Whose Votes Count?, pp. 140–43; Allen, “Municipal Annexation in North Carolina,” 

p. 224; Ubell, “Consent Not Required,” p. 1634; Yurko, “Annexation in Florida,” p. 699.

109

110 Statistics in this discussion are based on an objection count by submission, not by change (i.e., in this section, one 

objection represents one submission to which one or more changes were objected. Simply put, one objection does not

equal one objected-to-change. 

111 Staggered term refers to the scheduling of terms of office such that all members of a legislative body are not selected 

at the same time. 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 35

FIGURE 7 

Method of Election Objection by Type (July 1, 1982 to June 30, 2004) 

21.6

15.9 15.4

12.8

8.8 8.4

3.5 3.1 2.2 2.2 1.8 1.8 1.3 0.9 0.4

0

5

10

15

20

25

Mixed at-large/districts

Full slate ballots (in at-large systems)

Additional judges

Majority vote req’t (in at-large systems)

Change in number of officials (not judges)

At large

Appointive system

Single-member districts

Implementation schedule for new Method of Election

Other

Cumulative/limited voting

Multi-member districts

Single-member and multi-member districts

Partisan/nonpartisan elections

45% plurality requirement

Type of method of objection

Percent

Caption: The Justice Department interposed objections in 15 types of methods of election objections. Six categories each 

accounted for more than 8 percent of methods of election changes. 

Sources: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, “Complete Listing of Objections Pursuant to Section 3 (c) and 5 

of the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” response to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) document request, July 31, 2004; supplemented 

by a review of all objection letters, as provided to USCCR, Aug. 20, 2004. 

The adoption of at-large elections represents another type of change to which the Justice 

Department has consistently objected since 1965, and which constituted 8.4 percent of the election 

method objections since July 1982. (See figure 7.) During the current extension period, these 

objections often involved jurisdictions changing to at-large elections from a district-based system, 

which the Justice Department found to be retrogressive (and sometimes purposefully discriminatory 

as well). The objections also included several instances in which newly created jurisdictions 

adopted an at-large system and the Justice Department objected based on discriminatory purpose 

(there was no retrogression since there was no pre-existing election system).112

Beginning in the early to mid-1980s, a large proportion of the election method objections 

(21.6 percent) concerned changes from at-large election systems to mixed systems of district and atlarge seats. (See table 8.) As noted above, the enactment of the Section 2 results test in 1982 

spurred numerous jurisdictions to adopt district or mixed election systems. These changes were not 

retrogressive, and thus did not violate the Section 5 effect test. However, on a number of occasions, 

the Justice Department found that discriminatory purposes prompted jurisdictions to adopt 

particular mixed election systems. Specifically, the department objected when a relatively large 

proportion of the governing body remained elected at-large, or the use of a majority vote 

requirement and/or numbered posts or staggered terms limited minority voters’ opportunity to elect 

112 See Lockhart v. United States, 460 U.S. 125 (1983). 
36 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

any of the at-large representatives.113 Occasionally, these objections were based on a finding of a 

clear Section 2 violation, though typically in combination with a finding of discriminatory purpose. 

(See appendix table A-6.) As a result of the Supreme Court’s Bossier Parish decisions, the Justice 

Department may no longer object to changes from at-large to mixed election systems based on 

discriminatory purpose and/or a Section 2 violation. 

 TABLE 8 

 Method of Election Objections and Submissions (July 1, 1982 to June 30, 2004) 

Change 198

2 

198

3 

198

4 

198

5

198

6

198

7

198

8

198

9

199

0 

199

1 

199

2

199

3

Additional judges 1 2 7 5 1 3

Full slate ballots(in 

at-large systems) 

1 4 5 3 8 4 1 1 1 4

Appointive system 1 1 1 1 1 1

At-large 1 4 3 1 1 1 1 1 1

Change in number 

of officials (not 

judges) 

2 1 1 1 4 1 3 3

Cumulative/limited 

voting 

45% plurality

requirement 

Implementation 

schedule for new

MOE 

1 1 1 1 1

Majority vote req’t 

(in at-large 

systems) 

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 2 6

Mixed at-large/ 

districts 

2 2 3 7 5 2 7 2 5 3 4

Multi-member 

districts 

1 1 1

Partisan and 

nonpartisan 

elections 

Single-member 

districts 

1 1 1 3 1

Single-member and 

multi-member 

districts 

1 1 1

Other 3 2

113 The objections did not represent any de facto Justice Department rule against mixed election systems and, indeed, 

the department precleared numerous changes from at-large to mixed systems. 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 37

TABLE 8 

(Continued) 

Change 199

4 

199

5 

199

6 

199

7

199

8

199

9

200

0

200

1

200

2 

200

3 

200

4

Total

Additional judges 15 1 35 

Full slate ballots(in 

at large systems) 

2 1 1 36 

Appointive system 1 1 8 

At-large 1 1 1 2 19 

Change in number 

of officials (not 

judges) 

2 1 1 20 

Cumulative/limited 

voting 

1 1 1 1 4 

45% plurality

requirement 

1 1 

Implementation 

schedule for new

MOE 

5 

Majority vote req’t 

(in at-large 

systems) 

2 1 1 1 29 

Mixed at-large/ 

districts 

5 1 1 49 

Multi-member 

districts 

1 4 

Partisan and 

nonpartisan 

elections 

1 1 2 

Single-member 

districts 

7 

Single-member 

and multi-member 

districts 

3 

Other 5 

Caption: Of the 15 categories of methods of election changes, the Justice Department has interposed the highest number of

objections to six: mixed at-large districts (49), full-slate ballots (in at-large systems, (36), additional judges (35), majority vote 

requirement (in at-large systems, (29), change in number of officials (20), and at-large (19). In the other nine categories, the 

Justice Department interposed fewer than eight objections. 

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, “Complete Listing of Objections Pursuant to Section 3 (c) and 5 of 

the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” response to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) document request, July 31, 2004; supplemented by a 

review of all objection letters, as provided to USCCR, Aug. 20, 2004. 

The Justice Department also interposed 35 objections to the establishment of new elected state 

court judgeships, between 1988 and 1995, and none in other years during the extension period. (See 

table 8.) In reasoning that may be open to question, the Justice Department concluded that adding 

judgeships was discriminatory if it represented an extension of an underlying discriminatory 

election system. The Justice Department typically interposed these objections based on a 

combination of discriminatory purpose and a clear Section 2 violation (the creation of additional 
38 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

judgeships was not retrogressive). (See appendix table A-6.) The objections led New York, 

Georgia, Texas, and Arizona to file Section 5 declaratory judgment actions, and in each case the 

District Court for the District of Columbia granted preclearance (finding that there was no 

discriminatory purpose and holding, ahead of Bossier Parish I, that a Section 2 violation was not a 

basis for withholding preclearance). (See appendix table A-1.) These district court decisions 

brought an end to these objections. 

The last numerically significant category of election method objections since July 1982 concerned 

objections to changes in the number of elected officials other than judges (8.8 percent of the 

election method objections). (See figure 7.) The Justice Department interposed objections when the 

number of new seats proposed, in the context of the election system being used, arguably reduced a 

minority population’s opportunity to win a seat. 

Redistricting plans. The Justice Department interposed a higher number of objections to 

redistricting plans adopted after the 1980 and 1990 censuses (approximately 110 plans following 

the 1980 census and 180 following the 1990 census), relative to other post-census periods.114 This 

included objections to statewide plans for Congress and state legislatures (in 10 states following the 

1980 census and 13 states after the 1990 census), as well as to a large number of plans for 

municipal and county governing bodies and for school boards. The objections were based partly on 

retrogression (or a combination of retrogression and discriminatory purpose), and partly on 

discriminatory purpose where the plans were nonretrogressive (a few objections also were based on 

Section 2 violations, often in conjunction with a finding of discriminatory purpose).The Justice 

Department reviewed the post-2000 plans after the two Bossier Parish decisions, and interposed 

many fewer objections (only 30 in all, with objections interposed to statewide plans in just 

three states, one of which was later reversed by the Supreme Court in Georgia v. Ashcroft). (See 

table 9 and appendix tables A-6 and A-7.) 

114 The data for the redistricting objections following the 1980 census include objections interposed in 1981 and the 

first six months of 1982, as well as objections interposed following the extension of Section 5 in June 1982. 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 39

TABLE 9 

Redistricting Objections Following the Decennial Censuses 

Subject 

1970s

(1971 to 

1974)

1980s

(April 1981 

to June 30, 

1985)

1990s 

(April 1991 

to June 30, 

1995) 

2000s

(2001 to 

June 30, 2004)

Submitted changes c. 400 c. 1500 c. 2800 c. 2600

Objections (% of submitted) 58 (15%) c. 113 (8%) 184 (7%) 30 (1%)

Retrogression objections (% of objections) Not tallied 56 (50%) 31 (17%) 30 (100%)

States in which AG interposed an objection 

to one or more statewide plans 6 10 13 3

Caption: The number of Department of Justice objections to redistricting plans because of retrogression declined

considerably from the 1980s to the 1990s. 

Note: Redistrictings include both redistrictings and the first-time adoption of districting plans in jurisdictions that changed to a district 

method of election. Retrogression objections include objections where retrogression either was the sole basis or was one of multiple 

bases for interposing the objection. 

Sources: U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Civil Rights Division (CRD), Voting Section, “Complete Listing of Objections Pursuant to 

Section 3(c) and 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” response to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) document request, July 31,

2004; DOJ, CRD, Submission Tracking and Processing System (STAPS) data, as provided to USCCR, Sept. 20, 2004; supplemented by

a review of all objection letters, as provided to USCCR, Aug. 20, 2004. 

Geographic Distribution of Submitted Changes and Objections 

Congress originally intended the Section 5 formula to target states with a history of discrimination. 

In contemplating Section 5 extension, an analysis of objections the Justice Department interposed 

on covered states is instructive. Overall, the Justice Department interposed a higher rate of 

objection to states with smaller numbers of submitted changes and a lower rate to states with larger 

numbers of changes. In other words, some of the states that have been required to submit the 

greatest number of changes have yielded low rates of objection. 

From July 1982 to June 2004, 22 states submitted 359,452 proposed changes for Justice Department 

review. Texas proposed 41.6 percent, followed by Georgia, 13.7 percent. Together, they accounted 

for slightly more than half of all proposed changes. Submitted changes from the remaining states 

were distinctly lower. Proposed changes from five states comprised between 6.1 percent and 

7.8 percent of all proposed changes, from four states, between 1.2 and 3.2 percent, and from 11 

states (or 50 percent of all states), less than 1 percent. (See table 10.) 

The pattern of objections is striking in that for many states,115 the percentage of objections is highly 

disproportionate to that of submitted changes. Texas, Virginia, and Arizona all submitted changes 

that were disproportionate to the number of objections interposed. Texas, for example, with a 

41.6 percent share of proposed changes claimed only 8.3 percent of objections. Texas and Virginia 

accounted for approximately half of all submitted changes, but less than 10 percent of all 

objections. On the other hand, the clearest example of objections disproportionately higher than 

submitted changes is South Carolina, contributing only 6.1 percent of all changes and registering 

the highest percentage of objections, 35.9 percent, or 5.9 times its submitted changes. South 

115 This analysis examined states that submitted at least three percent of all proposed changes. 
40 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

Carolina and Louisiana combined for 48 percent of the objections even though they represented 

barely more than 12 percent of the submitted changes. The other states in which the rates of

objections are higher relative to submitted changes are Mississippi, North Carolina, Alabama, and 

Georgia (See table 10.) These six states’ relative share of objections must, however, be considered 

in context. Even in these six states, the objections as a percentage of submitted changes are 

relatively low: South Carolina, 3.7 percent, Louisiana, 1.2 percent, Mississippi, 1.3 percent, North 

Carolina, 1.2 percent, and Alabama, 0.9 percent and Georgia, 0.7. (See table 10.) The objection 

rates for all other states are less than 1 percent. 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 41

TABLE 10 

Submitted Changes and Objections by State (July 1, 1982 to June 30, 2004) 

Submitted changes 

by state as 

a percentage of all 

submitted changes

Objections by state 

as a percentage of 

all objections by

state

Objections by state 

as a percentage of 

the submitted 

changes by the state

Texas 41.6% 8.3% 0.1%

Georgia 13.7% 15.6% 0.7%

Virginia 7.8% 1.1% 0.1%

Arizona 7.0% 1.3% 0.1%

Alabama 6.3% 8.8% 0.9%

Louisiana 6.2% 12.0% 1.2%

South Carolina 6.1% 35.9% 3.7% 

North Carolina 3.2% 6.1% 1.2% 

Mississippi 3.1% 6.7% 1.3%

Alaska 1.5% 0.1% 0.0%

New York 1.2% 0.6% 0.3% 

Florida 0.9% 0.6% 0.4%

California 0.8% 2.7% 2.0%

South Dakota 0.3% 0.0% 0.1% 

Michigan 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%

Hawaii 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%

Wyoming 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%

New Mexico 0.0% 0.0% 0.6% 

New Hampshire 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 

Colorado 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%

Illinois 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%

Arkansas 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%

Total 100.0% 100.0% 0.6%

Caption: Of the 22 states, Texas submitted the higher number of proposed changes, 41.6 percent, followed by Georgia, 

13.7 percent. Together, they accounted for slightly more than a majority of changes. South Carolina received 35.9 percent

of all objections, followed by Georgia, 15.6 percent. Together they accounted for a majority of the objections. 

Note: See note in appendix table A-3. Submitted changes are therefore approximate. The South Carolina figure for objected-to changes 

includes a 1985 objection to 525 annexations. The Justice Department did not interpose objections to proposed changes from Michigan, 

Hawaii, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Colorado, Illinois, and Arkansas. 

Sources: U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Civil Rights Division (CRD), Voting Section, “Section 5 Objection Determinations,” June 30, 

2005, <http://www.justice.gov/crt/voting/sec_5/obj_activ.html> (last accessed December 15, 2005); DOJ, CRD, “Chart 1 (B-1): Changes 

Received Aug. 6, 1965 to June 30, 2004,” response to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights document request, Oct. 8, 2004. 

In conclusion, the Justice Department interposed low percentages of objections relative to proposed 

voting changes during the current extension period as well as previous extensions. This finding held 

whether analysis of Section 5 determinations is for all submitted changes, particular change types, 

or by the years of the extensions of the Voting Rights Act. Moreover, the number of objections has 

continued to decrease in recent years. The department’s few objections were clustered primarily 

among change types which represent slightly more than a quarter of the total change submissions, 

while the major change types yielded a negligible number of objections. The Justice Department 

interposed a large majority of objections (85.8 percent) to three types of changes: annexations, 

methods of elections, and redistrictings. Submissions and objections were also clustered 

geographically during the current extension period, with two states (Texas and Georgia) submitting 
42 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

more than half of all changes, and one state (South Carolina) receiving more than a third of all 

objections. 

In testimony before Congress, the former Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights 

offered the following observations about the declining number of objections over the last decade: 

Employing this standard [whether the purpose or effect of a voting change would put 

minority voters in a position inferior to the status quo] over the last 40 years, we have found 

retrogression in an extremely small number of cases. Since 1965, out of the 120,868 total 

Section 5 submissions received by the Department of Justice, the Attorney General has 

interposed an objection to just 1,401. And in the [last] 10 ten [sic] years, there have been 

only 37 objections. In other words, the overall objection rate since 1965 is only a hair over 

1 percent, while the annual objection rate since the mid-1990’s has declined even more, now 

averaging less than 0.2 percent. This tiny objection rate reflects the overwhelming—indeed, 

near universal—compliance with the Voting Rights Act by covered jurisdictions.116

The Justice Department’s enforcement record and the pattern of submitted changes and objections 

during the current extension period will inform Congress’ examination of Voting Rights Act 

compliance, particularly among Section 5 jurisdictions. 

Section 5 Legislative Extension Questions 

The impact of Section 5, by some accounts positive and by others negative, on the electoral 

opportunity of minority voters, as well as on the jurisdictions covered by the preclearance 

requirement, has been substantial since Congress last extended the statute. While preclearance has 

prevented retrogression of minority voter influence as Congress intended, the following discussion 

shows that its implementation also arguably has resulted in several negative consequences. 

By some accounts, the Justice Department required a “max-black” redistricting outcome, thus on 

occasion turning Section 5 into a gerrymandering tool and distorting the Voting Rights Act, with 

sometimes deleterious effects.117 Finding that methods concentrating minority voters could, in some

circumstances, lead to their isolation and a narrowing of political influence to only a fraction of

political districts, the Supreme Court now requires Section 5 preclearance actions to assess all 

relevant circumstances.118 In a slightly different context, earlier Supreme Court cases explained that 

concentrating minorities in isolated districts “reinforces racial stereotypes and threatens to 

116 Bradley J. Schlozman, acting assistant attorney general, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice, testimony

before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives, Oct. 25,

2005, <http://www. http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/speeches/voting15.pdf> (last accessed Mar. 3, 2006). Also available at 

<http://judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/schlozman102505.pdf> (last accessed Mar. 3, 2006). 

117 See Miller v. Johnson, 864 F. Supp. 1354 (S.D.Ga. 1994) (noting that the Justice Department’s preclearance 

decisions rely on the creation of “max-black” districting plans); See also Thernstrom, Whose Votes Count?, pp. 157-91;

Hayden, “Resolving the Dilemma of Minority Representation,” p. 1589; Edward Blum, visiting fellow, American 

Enterprise Institute, written statement to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Washington, DC, Oct. 7, 2005. The U.S. 

District Court for the Southern District of Georgia and other commentators concluded that the Justice Department’s 

goal was to leverage the control it had to maximize the number of minority districts. 118 See Georgia v. Ashcroft, 539 U.S. 461, 481 (2003). 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 43

undermine our system of representative democracy by signaling to elected officials that they 

represent a particular racial group rather than their constituency as a whole.”119 Other critics argue 

that Section 5 has had a negative impact on election competitiveness, guaranteeing safe seats for 

incumbents, and simultaneously insulating white Republican officials from a full appreciation of 

minority issues and minority officials from white voters. Some suggest that the provision acts as a 

glass ceiling for statewide or at-large office-seekers.120 Additionally, the Justice Department’s 

measure of retrogression, until, recently, was not sophisticated enough and relied on a formulaic 

examination of only districts which had majority-minority populations.121 

The Justice Department’s enforcement of Section 5 since 1981 can suggest, in part, whether or not 

the provision is necessary and appropriate. Furthermore, past enforcement activities also illustrate 

the effectiveness of the discriminatory purpose standard, which changes Section 5 ought to cover, 

and the necessity for bailout provisions. 

Extension of Section 5 

The most important questions in the extension debate likely will be: (1) whether the department’s 

objections demonstrate a continuing need for Section 5, and (2) whether there remains continuing 

justification for singling out jurisdictions currently covered. When Congress extended Section 5 in 

1982, it emphasized the importance of the objections interposed during the previous extension 

period.122 Similarly, when the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the 1975 extension, it 

highlighted Congress’ determination that the objections interposed after the 1970 extension “clearly 

bespeak the continuing need for this preclearance mechanism.”123 However, some commentators 

suggest Congress should look beyond the numbers of objections to their geographic distribution, 

and also at evidence of discrimination in noncovered jurisdictions. They assert that the South has 

changed dramatically since 1965 and that voting problems today are not limited to the South, and 

therefore, that it no longer makes sense to subject the same jurisdictions to preclearance.124

119 See Shaw v. Reno, 509 U.S. 630, 650 (1993). 

120 See, for example, USCCR briefing, Oct. 7, 2005, testimony of Edward Blum, visiting fellow, American Enterprise 

Institute, transcript, pp. 33–34, 37–38, 39; Roger Clegg, “Revise Before Reauthorizing,” National Review Online, Aug. 

4, 2005; Abigail Thernstrom and Edward Blum, “After 40 Years, It’s Time for Virginia to Move On,” Richmond 

Times-Dispatch, Aug. 1, 2005. 121 USCCR briefing, Oct. 7, 2005, testimony of Edward Blum, visiting fellow, American Enterprise Institute, 

transcript, p. 35. 

122 1982 Senate Report, pp. 10–12; 1981 House Report, pp. 14–20. 

123 Rome v. United States, 446 U.S. 156, 181 (1980), quoting H.R. Rep. No. 94-196, pp. 10–11 (1975). Congress also 

relied in 1982 on its finding that Section 5 compliance was inadequate, 1982 Senate Report, pp. 12–14; 1981 House 

Report, pp. 11–13. However, the importance of this issue appears to have receded. 

124 See, for example, J. Gerald Hebert, attorney-at-law, testimony before the U.S. House of Representative, Committee 

on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Oct. 20, 2005; Charles S. Bullock and Ronald Keith Gaddie, “An 

Assessment of Voting Rights Progress in Georgia,” report prepared for the Project on Fair Representation, American 

Enterprise Institute, Oct. 5, 2005; Issacharoff, “Is Section 5 a Victim of Its Own Success?”, pp. 1728-31; USCCR 

briefing, Oct. 7, 2005, testimony of Edward Blum, visiting fellow, American Enterprise Institute, transcript, p. 38; 

Roger Clegg, president and general counsel, Center for Equal Opportunity, transcript, p. 58; Commissioner Peter N. 

Kirsanow, transcript, pp. 84–85; Chairman Gerald A. Reynolds, transcript, p. 105; and Vice Chairman Abigail
44 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

Lastly, Congress should also consider reversing the Supreme Court’s ruling in Georgia v. Ashcroft

and returning the retrogression test to its historical meaning. Although the case was only decided in 

2003 and the Section 5 enforcement record to date offers little on which to base an impact 

evaluation, the potential for reaching conflicting results in identically situated jurisdictions calls for 

clarification. In place of a clear pre-2003 standard for the retrogression analysis, the Supreme Court 

introduced consideration of all relevant circumstances in a manner that will foster litigation. 

Congress should either clarify the Supreme Court’s interpretation of retrogression or provide an 

alternate interpretation. 

Section 5 Bailout Procedure 

To bail out from Section 5 coverage, a jurisdiction must obtain a declaratory judgment from the 

District Court for the District of Columbia. The United States is the statutory defendant in these 

cases. 

Prior to August 1984, the bailout standard required jurisdictions to demonstrate that the test or 

device for voting or voter registration that they used immediately prior to coverage (and which, in 

part, triggered the coverage determination) was not used in a discriminatory fashion at that time. In 

addition, where a state was covered in its entirety, only the state was allowed to file for bailout, and 

not any of its subjurisdictions. The 1982 extension included two significant changes to the 

procedure, which became effective in 1984. First, Congress provided that where a state is covered 

in its entirety, individual counties in that state (parishes in Louisiana; counties and independent 

cities in Virginia) may separately bail out. Second, Congress completely redesigned the bailout 

standard. 

The new post-1984 standard requires that a jurisdiction demonstrate good behavior during the 10 

years preceding filing and while the action is pending (for example, had no Section 5 objections, or 

any objections except those overturned by a court) and demonstrate that it has taken positive steps 

to improve minority voters’ opportunity to participate in the electoral process.125 At the time, some

critics predicted that these changes would result in numerous bailout lawsuits.126

Thernstrom, transcript, p. 114. 

125 The specific “good behavior” requirements are as follows: (1) no discriminatory test or device has been used to

determine eligibility for voting or registering to vote; (2) no court has issued a final judgment finding discrimination in 

voting, no voting discrimination case is pending, and no voting discrimination case has been resolved through a consent

decree or settlement resulting in the abandonment of the challenged voting practice; (3) no federal examiners have been 

assigned (either to register voters or in connection with the assignment of federal observers); (4) the jurisdiction has 

complied with the Section 5 preclearance requirement; and (5) there have been no preclearance denials by the District 

Court for the District of Columbia and no preclearance cases are pending, and no objections from the Attorney General

(that have not been overturned by the district court). The “positive step” requirements include: (1) the jurisdiction has 

eliminated voting procedures and election methods that inhibit or dilute equal access to the electoral process; (2) the 

jurisdiction has engaged in constructive efforts to eliminate voter intimidation and harassment; and (3) the jurisdiction

has engaged in constructive efforts to promote minority participation in the political process, such as expanded

registration and voting opportunities, and the appointment of minority persons as poll workers and election officials. 42 

U.S.C. 1973b (2000) .See also U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, “Section 4 of the 

Voting Rights Act,” n. d., <http://www.justice.gov/crt/voting/ misc/sec_4.htm> (last accessed Jan. 6, 2006). 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 45

Contrary to predictions, however, only nine bailout suits, all by Virginia counties and independent 

cities since 1997, have been filed under the amended procedure. In each case, the Justice 

Department consented to the bailout request (with the jurisdiction obtaining department agreement 

to consent prior to filing suit), and the district court granted bailout. 

Despite the dearth of bailout filings, a large number of subjurisdictions within the covered states 

potentially are eligible to file. In that regard, the occurrence (or not) of a Section 5 objection is a 

useful indicator of the jurisdictions that potentially might bail out, although a number of other 

factors also require consideration in the bailout determination. A review of the geographic 

distribution of objections within covered states indicates that a large number of counties (as well as 

a number of parishes and independent cities) have not had a Section 5 objection since at least July 

1982 (i.e., the Justice Department has not objected to changes adopted by the county, by any 

subjurisdiction entirely or partially in the county, or by the state on behalf of the county or any 

subjurisdiction).127 The dearth of bailouts in the face of the low number of objections has led some 

to call for liberalizing the bailout procedures.128 For example, some have cited the high cost of 

litigating these cases in the District of Columbia and recommended that Congress allow bailout 

proceedings to be brought in any federal court. 

THE MINORITY LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS OF THE VOTING 

RIGHTS ACT 

Statutory Requirements 

The substantive requirements of Sections 4(f)(4) and 203 are identical. Jurisdictions covered under 

either statute (or covered under both) have the same obligation to provide election information in 

one or more languages other than English. The statutes differ in their coverage formulas, and thus 

each has its own set of covered jurisdictions (which overlap to some extent). Under both statutes, 

each jurisdiction is covered for one or more specific language minority group. 

Both statutes specify that whenever a covered jurisdiction provides “materials or information 

relating to the electoral process” in English, it must provide the same materials and information in 

126 See generally 1982 Senate Report, pp. 43–59; Paul F. Hancock and Lora L. Tredway, “The Bailout Standard of the 

Voting Rights Act: An Incentive to End Discrimination,” 17 Urban Law 379 (1985). 

127 In six of the covered states (Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas), slightly less than half to

about two-thirds of the counties (or parishes) have not had an objection since July 1982. In South Carolina, only about

25 percent of the counties have not had an objection. In Virginia hardly any counties or independent cities have had an

objection (6 percent) and in Alaska no objections have been interposed to local changes. 

128 Pitts, “Section 5: A Once and Future Remedy?” pp. 284–87; Gaddie testimony before Congress, p. 11. Even some

supporters of the bailout provision recommend minor amendments. At least one scholar recommends that Congress 

examine the possibility of allowing local government subunits within a covered county to bailout independently. See J. 

Gerald Herbert, attorney-at-law, testimony before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Committee on the Judiciary, 

U.S. House of Representatives, Oct. 20, 2005. 
46 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

one or more additional languages, which are identified as part of the coverage determination. A 

special rule exists where an Alaskan Native or American Indian language is covered and that 

language is unwritten or historically unwritten; in these cases, the jurisdiction is only required to 

provide information orally in the covered language. The Attorney General has adopted guidelines to 

assist covered jurisdictions in understanding their responsibilities under Sections 4(f)(4) and 203.129

A key provision of the guidelines advises that covered jurisdictions typically may target bilingual 

materials and information to those areas of the jurisdiction where the language minority citizens 

reside, and do not need to provide the materials and information indiscriminately throughout the 

jurisdiction.130

Section 4(f)(4), enacted in 1975, uses as its coverage formula the provisions of Section 4(a) that 

extended the geographic reach of Section 5 in 1975.131 Significant covered areas under Section 

4(f)(4) include: Texas, statewide, for the Spanish language; Arizona, statewide, also for Spanish; 

Alaska, statewide, for Alaskan Native languages; and Bronx and Kings Counties in New York City, 

for the Spanish language. (See table 11.) Jurisdictions covered under Section 4(f)(4) also are 

covered under Section 5 and by the examiner and observer provisions of Sections 6 through 9; if a 

Section 4(f)(4) jurisdiction bails out from Section 5 coverage it also would bail out from Section 

4(f)(4) coverage. 

 TABLE 11 

 Section 4(f)(4) Jurisdictions 

State 

Geographic 

coverage 

Language coverage 

of populations 

Alaska Statewide Alaskan native

Arizona Statewide Spanish heritage

4 counties American Indian 

California 3 counties Spanish heritage 

Florida 5 counties Spanish heritage 

Michigan 2 townships Spanish heritage 

New York 2 counties Spanish heritage 

North Carolina 1 county American Indian 

South Dakota 2 counties American Indian 

Texas Statewide Spanish heritage

Caption: Texas and Arizona for Spanish language and Alaska for Alaskan Native languages are 

covered statewide under Section 4(f)(4). Bronx and King Counties in New York for Spanish language

are also covered. 

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, “List of Counties Added to Sections 

4(f)(4) and 203, Sept. 20, 1984 to Aug. 31, 2004,” response to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights document 

request, Aug. 31, 2004. 

129 Implementation of the Provisions of the Voting Rights Act Regarding Language Minority Groups, 28 C.F.R. pt. 55 

(2005). 

130 28 C.F.R. § 55.17. 

131 The test has three parts: on November 1, 1972, a single language minority group constituted over 5 percent of the 

voting-age citizens of a state or political subdivision (typically, a county); the jurisdiction provided election materials 

only in English on November 1, 1972; and less than 50 percent of the jurisdiction’s voting-age citizens registered to 

vote or voted in the 1972 presidential election. 42 U.S.C. § 1973aa-1a. See also 28 C.F.R. § 55.5. 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 47

Congress also enacted Section 203 in 1975. Its original term was 10 years. However, in 1982, 

Congress extended it until 1992 and modified the coverage formula. In 1992, Congress extended it 

for another 15 years (thus matching Section 5’s 2007 expiration date), and retained the 1982 

coverage formula. Jurisdictions covered under Section 203, and not also under Section 4(f)(4), are 

not subject to the Section 5 preclearance requirement or the examiner and observer provisions of 

Sections 6 through 9. However, a preclearance requirement and/or examiner and observer coverage 

may be instituted pursuant to Section 3 as a result of a Section 203 lawsuit. 

Section 203’s coverage formula has two parts. First, the formula looks to whether the members of a 

single language minority group who are limited-English proficient constitute more than a 

minimum percentage or number of voting-age citizens in a particular jurisdiction, or on an Indian 

reservation.132 Second, the formula requires that the illiteracy rate of this language minority group 

be higher than the national illiteracy rate. Section 203 defines “limited English proficient” to mean 

“unable to speak or understand English adequately enough to participate in the electoral process.”133

“Illiteracy” is defined as “the failure to complete the 5th primary grade” of school.134 A covered 

jurisdiction may bail out by filing a declaratory judgment suit in the District Court for the District 

of Columbia; the jurisdiction must demonstrate that the illiteracy rate of the covered language 

minority group in fact is equal to or less than the national illiteracy rate. 

Section 203 specifies that the director of the census makes coverage determinations, using census 

data, which are not reviewable in court. The director of the census makes new coverage 

determinations after each census; the most current coverage determinations used data from the 2000 

census. 

Section 203 currently covers approximately 300 political subdivisions in 30 states. (See table 12.) 

Covered languages include Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog, several 

American Indian languages, and several Alaskan Native languages. The most common coverage is 

for Spanish only. 

TABLE 12 

Section 203 Jurisdictions 

State Geographic coverage Language coverage of populations 

Alaska 28 boroughs and census areas Alaskan Native, American Indian, Filipino 

Arizona 12 counties American Indian, Hispanic 

California Statewide Hispanic 

25 counties American Indian, Chinese, Filipino, 

Hispanic, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese 

132 The coverage test, as applied to states, utilizes a minimum of 5 percent; and as applied to political subdivisions of 

states (typically, counties), utilizes a minimum of 5 percent or 10,000 citizens. For Indian reservations, the minimum is 

5 percent, and all political subdivisions are covered that include any part of a qualifying Indian reservation. 42 U.S.C. § 

1973aa-1a. See also 28 C.F.R. § 55.6; U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, “About

Language Minority Voting Rights,” no date, <http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/ sec_203/activ_203.htm> (last accessed 

Sept. 26, 2005). 

133 42 U.S.C. § 1973aa-1a(b)(3)(B). 

134 42 U.S.C. § 1973aa-1a(b)(3)(E). 
48 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

State Geographic coverage Language coverage of populations 

Colorado 10 counties American Indian, Hispanic 

Connecticut 7 towns Hispanic

Florida 10 counties American Indian, Hispanic 

Hawaii 2 counties Chinese, Filipino, Japanese 

Idaho 5 counties American Indian 

Illinois 2 counties Chinese, Hispanic 

Kansas 6 counties American Indian, Hispanic 

Louisiana 1 parish American Indian 

Maryland 1 county Hispanic

Massachusetts 5 cities and 1 town Hispanic 

Michigan 1 township Hispanic

Mississippi 9 counties American Indian 

Montana 2 counties American Indian 

Nebraska 2 counties American Indian, Hispanic 

Nevada 6 counties American Indian, Hispanic 

New Jersey 7 counties Hispanic 

New Mexico Statewide Hispanic American Indian, Hispanic 

26 counties Hispanic American Indian, Hispanic 

New York 7 counties Chinese, Hispanic, Korean 

North Dakota 2 counties American Indian 

Oklahoma 2 counties Hispanic

Oregon 1 county American Indian 

Pennsylvania 1 county Hispanic

Rhode Island 2 cities Hispanic 

South Dakota 8 counties American Indian 

Texas Statewide Hispanic

104 counties American Indian, Hispanic, Vietnamese 

Utah 1 county American Indian 

Washington 4 counties Chinese, Hispanic 

Caption: Section 203 covers jurisdictions in 30 states across the United States. 

Note: The covered languages listed for each subjurisdiction total in a particular state are the languages in which one or more (but not all) 

of the state’s subjurisdictions must provide election information. 

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, “List of Counties Added to Sections 4(f)(4) and 203, Sept. 20, 

1984 to Aug. 31, 2004,” response to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights document request, Aug. 31, 2004. 

Justice Department Enforcement 

The Justice Department has enforced the language minority requirements in a variety of ways—

through lawsuits (and, on one occasion, a nonlitigation settlement agreement), Section 5 objections, 

election monitoring using observers, and informal compliance efforts. 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 49

Lawsuits 

From July 1982 until November 2004, the department filed 18 lawsuits to enforce the language 

minority requirements. In addition, the relief obtained in two lawsuits filed prior to July 1982 

continued in effect after that date. All but one of these 20 lawsuits were filed under Section 203; 

one was filed under Section 4(f)(4). On several occasions, the department returned to court in these 

cases and obtained further relief after the initial remedy. The department mostly filed lawsuits 

against counties or that dealt with county election procedures (two suits were against states but 

concerned the election practices of particular counties). It also filed suits against two cities, one 

combined city/county government, and one school board. A review of these lawsuits reveals several 

notable patterns. (See table 13 and appendix table A-9.) 

TABLE 13 

Justice Department Enforcement of the Minority Language Requirements: Lawsuits and 

a Nonlitigation Agreement, Listed by Language and Date of Filing (1975 to November 30, 2004) 

Indian languages Spanish language Asian languages 

San Juan County, NM 1979 

(Navajo) 

City and County of San Francisco, 

CA (1978) 

City and County of San Francisco, 

CA (1978) (Chinese) 

San Juan County, UT (1983) 

(Navajo) 

Metro Dade County, FL (1993) Alameda County, CA (1995) 

(Chinese) 

McKinley County, NM (1986) 

(Navajo and subsequently Zuni 

also) 

City of Lawrence, MA (1998) Harris County, TX

Memo of Understanding (2004) 

NM and Sandoval County (1988) 

(Keres and Navajoa

) 

Passaic City and Passaic County,

NJ (1999) 

San Diego County, CA (2004) 

(Tagalog and Vietnameseb) 

AZ (Apache and Navajo Counties 

(1988) (Navajo) 

Orange County, FL (2002) 

Metro Dade County, FL (1993) 

(Mikasuki) 

Brentwood Union Free School 

District, NY (2003) 

Cibola County, NM (1993) (Keres 

and Navajo) 

San Benito County, CA (2004) 

Socorro County, NM (1993) 

(Navajo) 

Suffolk County, NY (2004) 

Bernalillo County, NM (1998) 

(Navajo) 

Yakima County, WA (2004) 

Ventura County, CA (2004) 

Caption: Between 1982 and 2004, the Department of Justice filed 18 lawsuits to enforce the language minority

requirements. All but 20 of the lawsuits were filed under Section 203; one was filed under Section 4(f)(4). a

 Navajo language claim brought under Section 2 (county not covered for Navajo under Section 203 or Section 4(f)(4)). b

 Relief obtained included a Vietnamese language program, although jurisdiction is not covered for the Vietnamese language. 

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, “Litigation Brought by the Voting Section,” no date,

<http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/litigation/caselist.htm#sec203cases> (last accessed Jan. 30, 2006). 

First, the 20 lawsuits have produced almost no contested litigation. The Justice Department 

resolved 17 of the 20 cases through settlements without any litigated order from the court, and no 

trials on the merits occurred in any of the cases. Three cases resulted in litigated preliminary orders. 

These latter cases do not suggest any trend of more or less litigation because they are widely spaced 

in time (the preliminary orders were issued in the three cases in 1978, 1993, and 2000–2001, 

respectively). In addition, there have not been any appellate decisions. 
50 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

Second, the department filed eight of the first 11 lawsuits (from 1979 until 1998) in Arizona, New 

Mexico, and Utah; they dealt with the provision of oral information in historically unwritten 

American Indian languages (Navajo, Zuni, and Keres). The most recent nine lawsuits (filed since 

1998) generally concerned the provision of election information in Spanish; the department filed 

four in the Northeast and three in California. Lawsuits also focused on the provision of information 

in Chinese, Tagalog, and Vietnamese, and a nonlitigation settlement agreement also addressed the 

provision of information in Vietnamese. 

Third, the Justice Department has filed lawsuits and requested supplemental relief during each 

administration, beginning in the 1980s. The activity during the current administration is particularly 

notable—from 2001 until November 2004, the department filed and settled seven cases, obtained 

supplemental relief in four cases that had been filed in the 1990s, and secured one nonlitigation 

settlement agreement. 

Fourth, the relief obtained in almost all the Justice Department’s settlement agreements shared 

many common requirements, including: (1) all election-related documents that are prepared in 

English also must be prepared in the language(s) for which the jurisdiction is covered or, if the 

language is unwritten, must be translated for oral transmission (using video and/or audio tapes); (2) 

translations must be accurate; (3) an outreach program should be utilized to ensure appropriate 

targeted dissemination of translated information; (4) an appropriate number of bilingual personnel 

should be employed at the elections office and targeted polling places; (5) election personnel who 

participate in the bilingual program should receive appropriate training; (6) a formal procedure 

should allow the language minority community to provide input regarding the language program; 

and (7) a full- or part-time coordinator should be responsible for ensuring that the language 

program is properly implemented. In addition, in almost all Section 203 cases, the settlements 

subjected the designated jurisdiction to Section 3(a) examiner and observer coverage for a specified 

period of time, to allow the Justice Department to monitor implementation of the settlement 

agreement. In some cases, the settlements also provided for Section 3(c) preclearance coverage for 

a specified period of time. 

Cost of Section 203 Compliance 

In 1986 and again in 1997, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)135 examined the 

costs associated with the provision of bilingual voting assistance under Section 203.136 GAO found 

such costs vary dramatically by location and type of assistance. For example, some jurisdictions 

provide oral assistance at little or no cost by using bilingual pollworkers and volunteers. Larger 

jurisdictions that are required to provide assistance in multiple languages and at numerous polling 

places report significantly higher costs. Los Angeles, for example, expended more than $1.1 million 

135 In July 2004, the agency changed its name from the U.S. General Accounting Office. 

136 Jurisdictions are not required to maintain cost data, so it is difficult to assess. Moreover, jurisdictions are often

unable to estimate the number of voters who actually use the language assistance provided 

See also U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO), Bilingual Voting Assistance: Costs of and Use During the November 

1984 General Election, September 1986 (hereafter cited as GAO, Bilingual Voting Assistance 1984), p. 32. 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 51

 Variation also can be attributed to state laws, which in some cases may 

require assistance beyond what the Voting Rights Act demands. 

in 1996.137 New York City and Santa Clara, California, also spent more than half a million dollars 

for this purpose that year.138

GAO estimated that in the 1984 elections, 83 jurisdictions spent on average 7.6 percent of their 

total costs on providing written language assistance and 2.8 percent on oral assistance.139 One 

research team sought to update the GAO studies by surveying 810 jurisdictions in 33 states about 

Section 203 practices and costs in post-2000 elections. Of those that responded, more than half 

reported incurring no extra costs for oral (59.1 percent) and written (54.2 percent) assistance. The 

survey’s findings estimate that jurisdictions spend an average of 8.1 percent and 4.9 percent of all 

election expenses on written and oral assistance, respectively.140

Some commentators, argue that Section 203 wastes government resources, requiring jurisdictions to 

expend limited election funds on materials that are seldom used.141 The Justice Department 

encourages jurisdictions to identify the most effective and efficient methods for providing bilingual 

voting assistance in order to conserve resources.142

Section 5 Objections 

Between 1985 and 1995, the Justice Department interposed eight Section 5 objections based on 

violations of Sections 4(f)(4) and 203 to changes adopted in Arizona, New York City, and Texas. 

The bases of seven of the eight objections were exclusively violations of Sections 4(f)(4) and 203; 

there was no discriminatory purpose or retrogressive effect associated with the changes. (See 

appendix table A-6.) The Supreme Court’s decision in Bossier Parish I now precludes the use of 

the language minority provisions to interpose objections. 

Election Monitoring 

In numerous elections, the Justice Department has deployed observers to polling places to evaluate 

jurisdictions’ compliance with the language minority requirements. The observers mostly have been 

sent pursuant to the department’s authority under Section 8 of the act or court-ordered coverage 

137 GAO, Bilingual Voting Assistance: Assistance Provided and Costs, May 1997, pp. 3, 20–21. 138 Id. 

139 GAO, Bilingual Voting Assistance 1984, pp. 16, 20. 

140 James Thomas Tucker, adjunct professor, Barrett Honors College, Arizona State University, testimony before the 

U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Nov. 9, 2005, 

pp. 4–7. 

141 See Linda Chavez, president, One Nation Indivisible, and chair, Center for Equal Opportunity, testimony before the 

U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Nov. 8, 2005, 

pp. 6–7; K.C. McAlpin, executive director, ProEnglish, testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives, 

Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Nov. 9, 2005, p. 5. 

142 Bradley J. Schlozman, acting assistant attorney general, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice, testimony

before the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Nov. 8,

2005, p. 3. 
52 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

under Section 3(a). The department also, in recent years, has expanded its ability to monitor 

elections for compliance with the language minority requirements by obtaining agreements with 

noncovered jurisdictions to send observers into polling places for particular elections. The 

information the department obtained from the observers led it to file Section 203 lawsuits, enabled 

the department to monitor implementation of language minority settlement agreements and obtain 

supplemental court relief when compliance is inadequate, and resulted in the department providing 

informal feedback to local election officials regarding the adequacy of their bilingual election 

programs.143

Informal Compliance Efforts 

The Justice Department engages in informal efforts to promote compliance with the language 

minority requirements in several ways. Perhaps the most significant is the information the 

department provides to covered jurisdictions about the steps necessary to implement an effective 

bilingual election program. This information is contained in the department’s language minority 

guidelines and in a booklet available through the Division’s Voting Section Web site.144 In addition, 

the department has placed several of its recent Section 203 settlements on the Internet. The 

guidelines, booklet, and settlements, when read together, provide a helpful and useful overview of 

the specific compliance steps that are important. However, the department’s informational 

compliance efforts likely would be better focused, and thus more effective, if it consolidated the 

information in one location, either by amending the language minority guidelines or expanding the 

informational booklet.145

The department also addresses language minority issues through correspondence, meetings, and 

telephone conversations. It sent letters to the covered jurisdictions after Congress enacted the 

language minority requirements in 1975 and to Section 203 jurisdictions following coverage 

determinations after the 1980, 1990, and 2000 censuses.146 The department also held meetings with 

election officials and minority community members in all of the 80 jurisdictions newly covered 

after the 2000 census, and sent letters to all Section 4(f)(4) and Section 203 jurisdictions prior to the 

2004 general election reminding them of their obligations under these statutes. The department also 

contacts election officials after receiving a complaint or other information indicating possible 

noncompliance. 

143 The extent to which the observer program is an essential ingredient of the Justice Department’s language minority

enforcement program is indicated by the fact that, from July 1982 to June 2004, the state with the third highest number 

of elections to which the department sent observers (pursuant to Section 3(a) or Sections 6 through 9) is New Mexico, 

where observers monitored language minority issues. (See appendix table A-10.) 144 U.S. Department of Justice, “Minority Language Citizens, Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act,” n d., 

<http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/sec_203/203_brochure.htm> (last accessed Dec. 1, 2004). 145 The department originally published language minority guidelines in 1976, and has significantly revised them since. 

The guidelines provide only very general guidance with regard to implementing an effective bilingual election 

program, and do not reflect the knowledge the Justice Department gained from its numerous post-1976 settlements. The 

brochure is of more recent origin, and provides an overview of the essential common elements of the settlement 

agreements. 146 The letters after the post-1980 census determinations were sent only to newly covered Section 203 jurisdictions. 

Letters were sent to all Section 203 jurisdictions after the 1990 and 2000 censuses. 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 53

In addition, the department began an effort in 2002 to monitor whether an adequate number of 

bilingual poll officials serve polling places in which a significant number of language minorities 

vote. This has involved obtaining voter registration and bilingual poll official lists from covered 

jurisdictions, analyzing the registration lists using lists of surnames common to particular language 

minority groups, and comparing the results with the bilingual poll official assignments. 

THE EXAMINER AND OBSERVER PROVISIONS OF THE VOTING 

RIGHTS ACT 

Registration Examiners 

Both permanent and temporary provisions of the original Voting Rights Act authorize the use of 

federal examiners. Section 3 (a), a permanent provision, provides for the appointment of federal 

examiners through a federal court order.147 Section 6, a temporary provision, allows the Attorney 

General to send federal examiners to covered jurisdictions to examine voter registration 

applications and ensure that jurisdictions add eligible voters to their rolls. Examiners were last used 

in 1982 and 1983, to register voters in only eight counties. They spent no more than a few days in 

each county. (See appendix table A-10.) Registration procedures are now governed by the National 

Voter Registration Act of 1993.148

Polling Place Observers 

The observer program, on the other hand, continues to play a vital role in the Justice Department’s 

Voting Rights Act enforcement efforts. (See appendix table A-10.) In some instances, the 

department uses observers where there are concerns about racial discrimination in the voting 

process; at other times, monitoring is done to ensure compliance with bilingual election 

procedures.149 The U.S. Office of Personnel Management recruits, trains, and supervises the 

observers, mostly federal employees, who serve as neutral monitors of Election Day procedures.150 

The department has expanded the observer program in recent years, beyond the provisions of the 

Voting Rights Act, by sending observers to jurisdictions not covered by Sections 4 or 3(a), and by 

obtaining agreements from jurisdictions to permit observers in polling places. During the 2004 

presidential elections, the department sent observers to 27 jurisdictions covered by Sections 4 or 

3(c) (slightly more than half were Section 3(c) jurisdictions), and to 61 jurisdictions not covered by 

147 U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, “About Federal Examiners and Federal Observers,” Feb. 28, 

2006, <http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/examine/activ_exam.htm> (last accessed Mar. 21, 2006). 

148 42 U.S.C. § 1973gg-2. 

149 U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, “About Federal Examiners and Federal Observers,” revised Feb. 

28, 2006, <http://www.justice.gov/crt/voting/examine/activ_exam.htm> (last accessed Mar. 1, 2006). 

150 Ibid. 
54 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

either provision.151 However, as table 14 indicates, many jurisdictions were certified decades ago 

and remain certified, although observers have not been sent in years. For example, since 1968, the 

Federal government has not sent observers to Sereven County, Georgia, which has been certified 

since 1967; Franklin County, Mississippi has been certified since 1967, however no observers have 

been sent since 1968. Observers are required to report any problems they detect to the Civil Rights 

Division attorney who accompanies and supervises each observer team, and the attorney in turn can 

immediately discuss the problem with local officials and seek resolution. The department can also 

engage in post-election discussions with local officials. And, as indicated above, observers can 

provide the factual foundation lawsuits under Sections 4(f)(4) or 203 (or under Section 2), and 

allow the department to monitor compliance with settlement agreements entered in these cases. 

TABLE 14 

Certification and Coverage of Election Observers through February 2006 

State Jurisdiction Date Certified Last Coverage 

Panel A: Attorney General Certification 

Alabama Autauga

Barbour 

Bullock County

Chambers County

Choctaw County

Conecuh County

Crenshaw County

Dallas County

Elmore County

Greene County

Hale County

Jefferson County

Lowndes County

Marengo County

Monroe County

10/29/65 

10/6/94 

11/6/78 

7/27/84 

5/30/66 

8/28/80 

12/29/86 

8/9/65 

10/29/65 

10/29/65 

8/9/65 

1/20/66 

8/9/65 

8/9/65 

8/31/84 

6/2/98 

6/28/94 

6/4/02 

6/3/86 

6/24/86 

1/6/87 

6/2/98 

11/5/74 

6/4/02 

8/28/90 

11/7/00 

6/28/94 

6/7/88 

151 U.S. Department of Justice, “Department of Justice Announces Federal Observers to Monitor General Election in

States Across the County,” press release, Oct. 28, 2004, <http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2004/October/04_crt_ 725.htm>

(last accessed Dec. 1, 2004); U.S. Department of Justice, “Department of Justice to Monitor November 2 Presidential 

Election in Cherokee, Delaware, and Adair Counties, Oklahoma,” press release, Nov. 1, 2004, <http://www. 

usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2004/November/04_crt_730.htm> (last accessed Dec. 1, 2004). Observers sent to Section 8 and 

Section 3(c) jurisdictions are federal employees assigned by the Office of Personnel Management. Observers sent to

jurisdictions not covered by either of these provisions are Justice Department employees. 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 55

State Jurisdiction Date Certified Last Coverage 

Panel A: Attorney General Certification 

Montgomery County

Perry County

Pickens County

Russell County

Sumter County

Talladega County

Wilcox County

9/29/65 

8/18/65 

9/1/78 

9/25/78 

5/2/66 

10/31/74 

8/18/65 

11/2/76 

1/20/87 

9/7/82 

9/4/84 

11/5/74 

11/2/82 

Arizona Apache County

Navajo County

Yuma County

10/31/86 

10/31/86 

2/26/91 

11/2/04 

11/2/04 

11/2/04 

Georgia Baker County

Baldwin County

Brooks County

Bulloch County

Burke County

Butts County

Calhoun County

Chattahoochee County

Early County

Hancock County

Jefferson County

Johnson County

Lee County

McIntosh County

Meriwether County

Mitchell County

Peach County

Pike County

Randolph County

Screven County

11/4/68 

8/7/84 

7/11/90 

7/30/80 

11/7/78 

8/25/82 

7/30/80 

8/7/84 

7/30/80 

11/7/66 

8/7/84 

7/30/80 

3/23/67 

7/20/92 

8/8/76 

7/30/80 

11/4/72 

8/7/84 

8/10/92 

3/23/67 

9/4/84 

11/6/84 

7/18/00 

8/5/80 

1/4/88 

7/9/96 

8/14/84 

8/5/80 

4/10/78 

11/5/96 

11/5/96 

9/11/68 

1/26/93 

8/6/96 

8/5/80 

7/21/92 

3/13/90 

8/10/04 

9/11/68 
56 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

State Jurisdiction Date Certified Last Coverage 

Panel A: Attorney General Certification 

Stewart County

Sumter County

Talbot County

Taliaferro County

Telfair County

Terrell County

Tift County

Twiggs County

Worth County

8/3/76 

7/30/80 

8/4/88 

11/4/68 

7/30/80 

3/23/67 

7/30/80 

9/3/74 

8/7/84 

6/29/93 

8/8/00 

8/10/93 

7/21/98 

8/9/88 

8/10/76 

8/5/80 

7/18/00 

9/4/84 

Louisiana Bossier Parrish

Caddo Parrish 

De Soto Parrish 

East Carroll Parrish 

East Feliciana Parrish 

Madison Parrish 

Ouachita Parrish 

Plaquemines Parrish 

Sabine Parrish 

St. Helena Parrish 

Tensas Parrish 

West Feliciana Parrish 

3/23/67 

3/23/67 

3/23/67 

8/9/65 

8/9/65 

8/12/66 

8/18/65 

8/9/65 

9/27/74 

8/16/72 

10/22/99 

10/29/65 

11/1/75 

11/20/99 

8/14/76 

11/1/75 

8/13/66 

12/27/79 

9/28/74 

10/22/83 

10/7/00 

11/6/71 

Mississippi Adams County

Amite County

Benton County

Bolivar County

Carroll County

Chickasaw County

Claiborne County

Clay County

Coahoma County

9/12/91 

3/23/67 

9/24/65 

9/24/65 

12/20/65 

8/2/99 

4/12/66 

9/24/65 

9/24/65 

11/5/02 

11/5/02 

8/25/87 

8/25/87 

11/2/99 

11/2/99 

11/3/87 

11/4/80 

5/15/01 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 57

State Jurisdiction Date Certified Last Coverage 

Panel A: Attorney General Certification 

Copiah County

Covington County

De Soto County

Forrest County

Franklin County

Greene County

Grenada County

Hinds County

Holmes County

Humphreys County

Issaquena County

Jasper County

Jefferson County

Jefferson Davis County

Jones County

Kemper County

Leake County

Leflore County

Lowndes County

Madison County

Marshall County

Monroe County

Neshoba County

Newton County

Noxubee County

Oktibbeha County

Pearl River County

Quitman County

Rankin County

Scott County

12/9/83 

8/6/79 

10/29/65 

6/1/67 

3/23/67 

8/6/79 

7/20/66 

10/29/65 

10/29/65 

9/24/65 

6/1/67 

4/12/66 

10/29/65 

8/18/65 

8/18/65 

10/31/74 

7/26/99 

8/9/65 

8/19/83 

8/9/65 

8/5/67 

9/12/91 

10/29/65 

12/20/65 

4/12/66 

3/23/67 

4/29/74 

10/29/80 

4/12/66 

5/17/93 

11/5/85 

8/24/99 

5/10/77 

3/12/68 

11/6/79 

11/7/00 

11/4/86 

5/6/97 

6/7/05 

11/6/84 

10/8/91 

8/20/85 

8/25/87 

11/2/04 

11/2/04 

11/2/04 

11/5/96 

11/5/96 

5/20/97 

8/3/99 

5/4/04 

11/2/04 

11/2/04 

11/4/03 

11/5/96 

5/21/85 

8/24/99 

11/5/96 

5/20/97 
58 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

State Jurisdiction Date Certified Last Coverage 

Panel A: Attorney General Certification 

10/29/80 

10/29/76 

11/4/80 

11/2/76 

Sharkey County

Simpson County

Sunflower County

Tallahatchie County

Tunica County

Walthall County

Warren County

Washington County

Wilkinson County

Winston County

Winston County

Yazoo County

6/1/67 

12/20/65 

4/29/67 

8/14/71 

10/31/75 

10/29/65 

12/20/65 

8/8/83 

8/5/67 

4/12/66 

4/12/66 

10/28/71 

11/8/83 

8/8/67 

1/15/02 

5/1/01 

1/22/99 

8/24/99 

5/6/97 

10/6/03 

2/12/02 

11/2/04 

11/2/04 

11/3/87 

North Carolina Edgecombe County 5/3/84 11/8/94

New York Bronx County

Kings County

New York County

11/1/85 

11/1/85 

11/1/85 

11/6/01 

11/8/05 

11/8/05 

South Carolina Bamberg County

Calhoun County

Chester County

Clarendon County

Colleton County

Darlington County

Dorchester County

Hampton County

Marion County

Richland County

Williamsburg County

10/10/84 

9/28/84 

6/8/90 

10/29/65 

10/10/84 

11/6/78 

10/29/65 

10/10/84 

6/26/78 

9/28/84 

9/28/84 

2/12/85 

11/8/88 

6/25/96 

10/2/84 

10/11/84 

11/7/78 

12/11/02 

10/1/84 

6/11/96 

10/2/84 

6/25/96 

Texas Atascosa County

Bee County
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 59

State Jurisdiction Date Certified Last Coverage 

Panel A: Attorney General Certification 

Crockett County

Dallas County

El Paso County

Fort Bend County

Frio County

Galveston County

Hidalgo County

Jefferson County

La Salle County

Medina County

Reeves County

Titus County

Uvalde County

Victoria County

Wilson County

8/11/78 

4/5/84 

11/6/78 

4/28/76 

10/29/76 

12/5/96 

11/4/88 

12/5/96 

10/29/76 

4/28/76 

5/5/78 

11/1/02 

4/28/76 

3/31/87 

4/28/76 

8/12/78 

11/2/04 

11/7/78 

5/1/76 

4/14/92 

12/10/96 

11/8/88 

12/10/96 

11/2/76 

5/1/76 

6/3/78 

11/5/02 

5/1/76 

4/4/87 

5/1/76 

Caption: The Attorney General certified many of the jurisdictions decades ago, although observers have not been

sent in years. 

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, “AG Certifications as of February 26, 2006” and “Court

Certification, Current as of February 28, 2006” facsimile submission to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Mar. 2, 2006 
60 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

TABLE 14 

(Continued) 

State Jurisdiction Date Certified Last Coverage 

Panel B: Court Certification 

California City of Azusa (Los Angeles County)

City of Paramount (Los Angeles 

County)

City of Rosemont (Los Angeles 

County)

San Benito County

San Diego County

Ventura County

Expired Jurisdictions

Alameda County

San Francisco County

8/26/05 through 8/6/07 

8/23/05 through 8/8/07 

9/8/05 through 8/6/07 

10/1/04 through 12/31/06 

7/7/04 through 3/31/07 

9/2/04 through 8/1/07 

1/22/96 through 1/22/01 

11/01/78 through 11/7/78; 

10/15/79 through end of 

court jurisdiction; 

5/19/80 through 8/6/85 

11/2/04 

11/8/05 

11/8/05 

11/7/02 

12/11/79 

Illinois Expired Jurisdictions

Alexander County

Town of Cicero (Cook County)

City of East Chicago (Lake County)

10/31/83 (effective for 5 

years) 

10/23/00 through 12/31/05 

9/13/04 through 12/31/04 

2/22/05 

12/28/04 

Louisiana St. Landry Parrish 12/5/79 4/5/80 

Massachusetts City of Boston (Suffolk County) 10/18/05 through 12/31/08 11/8/05

Michigan City of Hamtramck (Wayne County) 1/28/04 through 1/31/06 11/8/05

Nebraska Expired Jurisdictions

Thurston County 5/9/79 (effective for 

5years) 

Nevada Humboldt County 9/7/78 (effective for 1 

election only)

9/12/78 

New Jersey Passaic County 4/19/04 through 12/31/05 

New Mexico Cibola County 5/3/04 through 12/31/06 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 61

State Jurisdiction Date Certified Last Coverage 

Panel B: Court Certification 

Sandoval County

Expired Jurisdiction 

Bernalillo County

Chaves County

Curry County

McKinley County

Otero County

Socorro County

11/8/04 through 1/15/07 

7/1/03 through 1/31/05 

12/17/84 (effective for 10 

years) 

12/17/84 (effective for 10 

years) 

2/7/97 through 2/1/01 

12/17/84 (effective for 10 

years) 

7/13/04 through 12/15/04 

11/2/04 

11/2/04 

11/7/00 

11/5/02 

New York Brentwood Union Free School 

District (Suffolk County)

Suffolk County

Westchester County

7/14/03 through 1/31/07 

9/27/04 through 1/31/08 

7/18/05 through 8/7/07 

5/17/05 

11/8/05 

11/8/05 

Pennsylvania Berks County 8/21/03 through 6/30/07 11/8/05 

South Dakota Buffalo County 2/12/04 through 1/1/13 11/2/04 

Texas Ector County 8/26/05 through 8/6/07 11/8/05 

Utah Expired Jurisdiction 

San Juan County 12/31/98 through 12/31/02 11/5/02 

Washington Yakima County 9/7/04 through 13/31/06 3/8/05 

Wisconsin Expired Jurisdiction 

Shawano County 2/17/78 (effective for six 

months) 

4/4/78 

Caption: Observers have not been sent in decades to the few jurisdictions the courts certified more than 20 years 

ago, Among those certified more recently, a majority of the jurisdictions, observers were sent in the last several 

years. 

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, “AG Certifications as of February 26, 2006” and “Court 

Certification, Current as of February 28, 2006” facsimile submission to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Mar. 2, 2006. 
62 Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization

p. 41;

CONCLUSION 

Confronted by explosive social turmoil that accompanied the painful struggle for voting rights for 

African Americans 40 years ago, Congress enacted in 1965 the Voting Rights Act. The enactment 

made “the promise of the right to vote under the 15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution a reality, 

ninety-five years after [its] passage.”152 The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was, and remains, landmark 

legislation that indisputably elevated the political power of African Americans and other minority 

groups.153 Along with its core temporary provisions, in particular Section 5, the Voting Rights Act 

has increased minority voter registration, voter turnout, and officeholding.154 In carrying out this 

study, the Commission examined quantitative and qualitative data that include voting rights 

experts’ testimonies to evaluate Justice Department decisions on Section 5, in particular its pattern 

of objections. The resulting report offers key findings. It should be recalled that Justice Department 

objections may undercount or overcount covered jurisdictions’ actual or potential efforts to bring 

about voting changes to the detriment of minority voters. Nevertheless, Justice Department 

objections remains the best single indicator available.155

During the three legislative periods that the Commission examined, 1965–1974, 1975–1982, and 

1982–2004, the number of submitted changes from jurisdictions rose substantially, from 4,998 to 

414,927. The proportion of objections to submitted changes decreased throughout, from 5.5 percent 

in the first period to 1.2 percent in the second, and to 0.6 percent in the third. Over the last 10 years, 

the overall objection rate was so low as to be practically negligible, at less than 0.1 percent. 

Focusing on the current extension period, the Commission reviewed objection rates by types of 

proposed voting changes and found that the Justice Department interposed few objections relative 

to submitted changes irrespective of change type. Of note, changes which concerned 

precincts/polling place/absentee vote, annexations/boundary changes, and voter registration, 

comprised almost 76 percent of all submitted changes. Despite this proportion, however, the former 

involved lower objection rates, only 1.5 percent collectively. Ironically, the Justice Department 

objected to proposals on redistrictings and methods of elections at higher rates, 7.8 percent 

combined, even though they made up only 6.6 percent of all proposals. Analysis by state showed 

objection rates disproportionate to the number of changes submitted for many jurisdictions. For 

example, Texas ranked first among the states that submitted proposals, contributing 41.6 percent, 

yet the numbers of objections it received comprised a small proportion of all the objections the 

Justice Department interposed. In contrast, South Carolina submitted a smaller number of changes, 

152 The Judiciary’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, United States House of Representatives hearing, Oct. 18, 2005, 

testimony of Joe Rogers, National Commission on the Voting Rights Acts, p. 1. 

153 See, for example, USCCR briefing, Oct. 7, 2005, testimony of Ronald Keith Gaddie, professor of political science, 

the University of Oklahoma, Francis, “Preserving a Fundamental Right,” p. 1; the Honorable Jack Kemp, former 

member of Congress and former secretary of housing and urban development, testimony before the Subcommittee on 

the Constitution, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives, Oct. 18, 2005. 

154 See, for example, Donahue, “The Report of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated,” p. 1651. 

155 See Protecting Minority Voters; The Voting Rights Act at Work 1982–2005, A Report by The National Commission 

on Voting Rights Act, February 2006, n. d., Figure 1. 
Voting Rights Enforcement & Reauthorization 63

only 6.1 percent, but its objections comprised 35.9 percent of all objections. Furthermore, objection 

rates to submitted changes from an overwhelming majority of states are negligibly low, less than 

1 percent. 

What plausible conclusions might one draw from this pattern of findings? Many observers may 

consider the declining trend in objections as indicative that the Voting Rights Act (and Section 5 

among its core temporary provisions) have been successful against the blatant virulent 

discrimination the nation witnessed in the 1960s and 1970s. Findings from recent studies 

documenting the increase in the numbers of minority candidates running for office and increased 

minority participation in elections would bolster this view. Some might extract from the Justice 

Department’s statistical record that Section 5 has been victim to its success. That is, Section 5’s 

utility has dropped to a point which renders reauthorization unnecessary. Others may not go as far. 

They may conclude Section 5 requires retooling, for example, revising the coverage formula, 

liberalizing the bailout procedure, or limiting any future extension period. Still others might 

conclude that, taken together, these data suggest that the President and Congress should try to 

replicate the success of covered jurisdictions in noncovered ones.156 Alternatively, some may want 

Section 5 to be reauthorized as long as any discrimination in the electoral process remains. They 

might note, for example, that even though the proportion of objections to jurisdictions’ proposed 

changes is extremely low, the Justice Department continues to interpose them. The purpose of this 

report has not been to select from among these competing perspectives, each of which may arise 

from a particular perspective, set of beliefs, and view of constitutional law and federal authority. 

Rather, it is intended that this report provide an analysis of the historical record that may inform

decision-makers of all perspectives. 

156 One obstacle to this approach is that a simple extension of Section 5 will not suffice because it will not be construed 

as “narrowly tailored” or “congruent and proportionate” to remedy the harms it is intended to cure. See, for example, 

National Commission on the Voting Rights Act and Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law “Background on 

the Expiring Provisions of the Voting Rights Act,” n. d., p. 2. 

APPENDIX A SUPPLEMENTAL TABLES 

TABLE A-1 

Merit Decisions in Section 5 Declaratory Judgment Actions (July 1, 1982 to June 30, 2004) 

Case Jurisdiction Changes at 

Issue 

Decision Reasoning 

Busbee v. Smith,

549 F. Supp. 494 

(D.D.C. 1982), 

aff’d. mem., 459 

U.S. 1166 (1983) 

Georgia Redistricting Declaratory

Judgment (DJ) 

denied 

Discriminatory purpose (plan was not 

retrogressive) 

City of Lockhart 

v. U.S., 460 U.S. 

125 (1983) 

Lockhart, TX Numbered 

posts; 

staggered 

terms 

Supreme Court 

vacated district 

court denial of 

DJ; case was 

dismissed on 

remand 

Supreme Court ruled that the 

retrogression analysis requires that the 

proposed change be compared to the 

system actually in effect on the coverage 

date, and changes that are neither 

retrogressive nor ameliorative do not 

violate the effect standard. 

County Council 

v. U.S., 596 F.

Supp. 35 (D.D.C. 

1984) 

Sumter 

County, SC 

At-large 

method of 

election 

DJ denied Discriminatory purpose and retrogression. 

City of Pleasant 

Grove v. U.S.,

479 U.S. 462 

(1987) 

Pleasant 

Grove, AL 

Annexations DJ denied Discriminatory purpose (annexations were 

racially selective). The Section 5 purpose 

test is not limited to the issue of intent to 

retrogress, but rather looks at whether the 

voting change had a discriminatory

purpose in the constitutional sense. 

New York v. 

U.S., 874 F.

Supp. 394 

(D.D.C. 1994), 

reconsideration 

denied, 880 F.

Supp. 37 (D.D.C. 

1995) 

Bronx and 

Kings 

Counties, NY 

Additional 

judgeships 

DJ granted No discriminatory purpose or 

retrogression. Preclearance may not be 

denied based on a Section 2 violation. 

Georgia v. Reno, 

881 F. Supp. 7 

(D.D.C. 1995) 

Georgia Additional 

judgeships 

DJ granted No discriminatory purpose or 

retrogression. Preclearance may not be 

denied based on a Section 2 violation. 

Texas v. U.S., 

No. 94-1529, 

1995 WL 456338 

(D.D.C. 1995) 

Texas Additional 

judgeships 

DJ granted No discriminatory purpose or 

retrogression. Preclearance may not be 

denied based on a Section 2 violation. 

Arizona v. Reno, 

887 F. Supp. 318 

(D.D.C. 1995) 

Coconino and 

Navajo 

Counties, AZ

Additional 

judgeships 

DJ granted Preclearance may not be denied based on 

a Section 2 violation. Summary judgment 

was denied. 

(Subsequent to this decision, DOJ 

consented to preclearance.) 
66 Appendix A Supplemental Tables 

Case Jurisdiction Changes at

Issue 

Decision Reasoning

Bossier Parish 

School Board v. 

Reno, 520 U.S. 

471 (1997) 

Bossier Parish 

School District, 

LA 

Redistricting DJ granted In Bossier Parish I, the Supreme Court 

held that preclearance may not be denied 

based on a Section 2 violation. 

Bossier Parish 

School Board v. 

Ashcroft, 528 

U.S. 320 (2000) 

Bossier Parish 

School District, 

LA 

Redistricting DJ granted In Bossier Parish II, the Court held that 

the Section 5 purpose test is limited to the 

issue of intent to retrogress, and does not 

include consideration of whether the 

voting change had a discriminatory

purpose in the constitutional sense. 

Georgia v. 

Ashcroft, 539 

U.S. 461 (2003) 

Georgia State senate

redistricting 

District court 

denial of DJ 

vacated; on 

remand, case 

was dismissed 

Supreme Court held that where the 

existing voting practice allows minority

voters some opportunity to elect 

candidates of choice, the retrogression 

determination is not based only on 

whether the change reduces that 

opportunity to elect. Instead, the Attorney

General or district court must consider all 

facts associated with changes to minority

voters’ opportunity to participate in the 

political process, including the opportunity

to exert substantial influence in elections 

where they lack the opportunity to elect 

candidates of choice and the opportunity

of minority voters’ elected representatives 

of choice to exert legislative leadership, 

influence, and power. 

Caption: The table contains 11 decisions involving proposed voting changes by jurisdictions seeking compliance with Section 5

through United States District Court for the District of Columbia. 

Source U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, “Section 5 Declaratory Judgment Actions (United States District 

Court for the District of Columbia),” response to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights document request, Aug. 3, 2004. 
Appendix A Supplemental Tables 67

TABLE A-2 

Summary Declaratory Judgment Statistics (through June 30, 2004) 

Subject 1965–June 1983 July 1982–June 2004 Total

Declaratory judgment actions filed 

Granted (contested) 

Granted (no DOJ opposition) 

Denied 

Dismissed 

Percentage of contested declaratory

judgment actions in which 

preclearance was denied 

27 

3 

4 

8 

7 

73% 

41 

5 

3 

3 

35 

37% 

68 

8 

7 

11 

42 

58%

Caption: Eighty-seven percent of submitted Section 5 voting changes and 71 percent of Department of Justice objections to 

these changes occurred after July 1982. Similarly, most declaratory judgment actions were filed after July 1982. 

Note: Data for Section 5 declaratory judgments reflect the final decision in each case, by the District Court for the District of Columbia or the 

Supreme Court. 

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, “Section 5 Declaratory Judgment Actions (United States District 

Court for the District of Columbia),” response to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights document request, Aug. 3, 2004. 
68 Appendix A Supplemental Tables 

TABLE A-3 

Preclearance Statistics by Year for the Current Extension Period (July 1, 1982 to June 30, 2004) 

Subject 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994

Submitted

Submissions 1,047 3,130 3,827 3,662 4,536 4,273 4,995 3,843 4,685 4,494 5,225 4,321 4,545

Changes 5,881 12,360 16,209 14,896 20,314 15,608 19,587 13,213 17,106 18,238 22,349 17,524 17,615

Objections

Submissions 30 48 42 23 32 24 23 22 37 76 77 69 61

Changes 53 70 110 172 639 85 135 168 110 129 92 193 133

Declaratory

judgment 

actions filed 1 2 1 0 2 3 0 0 2 3 3 3 6

Granted 

(contested) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

Granted (no 

DOJ opp.) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1

Denied 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Dismissed 1 2 2 1 1 2 2 0 0 0 4 2 1

More 

information 

submissions 135 237 242 175 175 145 100 115 120 207 164 163 139

Subject 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Total

Submitted

Submissions 3,899 4,459 3,932 3,928 3,909 4,506 4,061 5,734 4,692 3,375 95,078

Changes 13,809 17,841 15,270 14,627 13,363 15,925 13,666 17,878 15,785 10,388 359,452

Objections

Submissions 19 7 8 8 5 4 7 21 8 3 654

Changes 32 9 18 17 5 6 10 23 9 5 2,223

Declaratory

judgment 

actions filed 3 4 1 0 0 2 1 3 1 0 41

Granted 

(contested) 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 5

Granted (no 

DOJ opp.) 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Denied 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3

Dismissed 4 2 3 1 0 2 0 2 1 2 35

More 

information 

submissions 90 57 50 53 36 57 61 125 44 23 2,713

Caption: During the current extension period, Section 5 objections reached a high between 1982 and 1995, and began declining in 1996. 

Notes: (1) Data for the total number of submissions received since July 1, 1982 are an approximation. During the 1980s, the Justice Department maintained 

data on the number of changes submitted but not on the number of submissions. Subsequently, the Department reconstructed the number of 1980s 

submissions. However, the method used proved to be an overestimate. (2) Data for Section 5 declaratory judgments reflect the final decision in each case by

the Supreme Court or the district court. The date is the year of the final decision, except that if the district court decision was summarily affirmed, the year is 

that of the district court’s decision. (3) The two time periods overlap to some extent. Hence, figures in the “total” column include some double counting. 

Source: Compiled from U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, Submission Tracking and Processing System (STAPS) data, as

provided to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Sept. 20, 2004. 
Appendix A Supplemental Tables 69

TABLE A-4 

Preclearance Statistics by Year, Prior to the Current Extension Period (1965 to June 30, 1982) 

Subject 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 Subtotal

Submitted 

changes 1 26 64 114 166 358 729

Objections 

Submissions 0 0 0 4 15 3 22

Changes 0 0 0 6 16 3 25

Subject 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 Subtotal

Submitted 

changes 1,377 917 859 1,116 2,642 6,911 

Objections 

Submissions 52 32 27 34 40 185 

Changes 86 52 37 73 138 386 

Subject 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 Subtotal 

Total 

1965–1982

Submitted 

changes 7,949 3,952 5,477 6,962 7,404 7,221 8,870 47,835 55,475 

Objections 

Submissions 64 36 39 26 32 4 23 244 451 

Changes 151 104 49 45 51 33 58 491 902 

Caption: From August 1965 to 1970, jurisdictions covered under Section 5 submitted only 729 changes. From 1971 to 1975 they

submitted roughly 6,900 changes, and between 1976 and 1982, they submitted 47,835 changes. 

Note: Data are not available for the number of submissions the Justice Department received during this time period. 

Source: Compiled from U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, Submission Tracking and Processing System (STAPS)

data, as provided to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Sept. 20, 2004. 
70 Appendix A Supplemental Tables 

TABLE A-5 

Preclearance Statistics by Change Type (July 1, 1982 to June 30, 2004) 

Subject 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

Submitted 

Annexations, boundary

changes 

506 1525 2648 3652 4448 3449 4871 2999

Methods of election 125 454 509 773 831 1032 872 774

Precinct/polling place/ 

absentee ballot 

3920 6101 6819 5541 8542 4825 7126 4201

Redistrictings 153 860 258 247 265 263 336 201

Special elections 150 430 535 710 1029 1153 1181 968

Voter registration 464 2164 3959 2304 2664 2784 3053 1952

Total (all change types) 5881 12,360 16,209 14,896 20,314 15,608 19,587 13,213

Objections 

Annexations, boundary

changes 

5 6 49 137 574 53 22 8

Methods of election 10 15 22 12 40 16 59 84

Precinct/polling place/ 

absentee ballot 

5 5 7 7 0 3 1 11

Redistrictings 24 40 16 10 14 8 9 8

Special elections 3 1 4 1 1 0 22 0

Voter registration 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0

Other 4 3 11 5 10 57 22 57

Total (all change types) 53 70 110 172 639 168 135 168 

Subject 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997

Submitted 

Annexations, boundary

changes 

4004 2356 2394 2322 3315 3443 3419 3172

Methods of election 907 955 1085 1250 640 719 456 526 

Precinct/polling place/ 

absentee ballot 

5541 7867 11,912 8433 8363 5213 8990 8118

Redistrictings 158 903 953 494 312 206 112 100

Special elections 1214 922 1264 1237 1130 1073 1090 1301

Voter registration 3083 3571 3303 2058 2571 1628 1858 472 

Total (all change types) 17,106 18,238 22,349 17,524 17,615 13,809 17,841 15,270

Objections 

Annexations, boundary

changes 

9 1 1 91 22 12 2 5

Methods of election 83 52 18 25 76 7 1 2 

Precinct/polling place/ 

absentee ballot 

3 5 1 24 2 1 0 0

Redistrictings 6 66 67 40 10 7 3 2

Special elections 1 1 0 2 12 0 0 1 

Voter registration 4 1 3 1 2 2 1 8

Other 4 3 2 10 9 3 2 0

Total (all change types) 110 129 92 193 133 32 9 18 
Appendix A Supplemental Tables 71

TABLE A-5 

(Continued) 

Subject 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Total 

Submitted 

Annexations, boundary

changes 

3358 3605 4204 3194 4253 4234 2912 74,283 (21%) 

Methods of election 478 584 408 655 473 459 182 15,147 (4%)

Precinct/polling place/ 

absentee ballot 

7946 5958 7808 5536 8361 5856 4171 157,148 (44%) 

Redistrictings 63 65 48 963 1111 379 172 8,622 (2%)

Special elections 1203 1196 1237 1164 1455 1212 731 23,585 (7%)

Voter registration 274 359 524 349 364 545 571 40,874 (11%) 

Total (all change types) 14,627 13,363 15,925 13,666 17,878 15,785 10,388 359,452 

Objections 

Annexations, boundary

changes 

1 1 0 0 0 2 0 1001 (45%) 

Methods of election 3 1 4 5 2 2 4 543 (24%) 

Precinct/polling place/ 

absentee ballot 

5 2 0 0 0 0 0 82 (4%)

Redistrictings 3 1 1 4 19 5 1 364 (16%) 

Special elections 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 49 (2%)

Voter registration 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 25 (1%)

Other 5 0 1 1 2 0 0 159 (7%)

Total (all change types) 17 5 6 10 23 9 5 2,223 

Caption: Although the number of Section 5 submitted voting changes remained high for each year from 1982 to 2004, the number 

of Department of Justice objections to such changes decreased markedly after 1994. 

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, “Number of Changes by Type of Change for All Calendar Years” and 

“Number of Changes to Which Objections Have Been Interposed by Type for All Calendar Years,” Submission Tracking and Processing System

(STAPS) Statistics Reports, Sept. 20, 2004. 
72 Appendix A Supplemental Tables 

TABLE A-6 

Objections Based on Other Provisions of the Voting Rights Act (July 1, 1982 to May 12, 1997), 

when the Supreme Court Issued Its Decision in Bossier Parish I) 

Objections Based on Section 2 

Violations 

Total

Absentee Voting 1 

TX, Dallas City 2/27/89 

Judgeship Changes 25 

AL 11/8/91 AL 12/23/91 AL 11/16/93 AL 4/14/94* 

AZ, Coconino City 4/8/94* AZ, Navajo City

5/16/94* 

GA 6/16/89 GA 4/25/90 

GA 6/7/91 GA 10/1/91 GA, Baldwin City

8/13/93 

GA 1/24/95 

LA 9/23/88* LA 5/12/89* LA 9/17/90 LA, Monroe City Court 

10/23/90 

LA 11/20/90 LA 9/20/91 LA 3/17/92 LA, Monroe City Court 

3/22/93 

LA, Shreveport City Court 9/6/94 LA 10/5/94 NY 12/5/94 NC 2/14/94

TX 11/5/90 

New Method of Election and/or 

Districting Plan 14 

MS, Houston Mun. SD 4/18/89 MS, Quitman 

12/19/94 

NC, Halifax City

5/16/84 

NC, Granville City

SD, 8/1/88* 

NC, Camp Butner Reservation 2/3/97 SC, Edgefield 

City 6/11/84* 

SC, Bennettsville 

(implementation 

schedule for new

MOE) 2/2/90 

SC, Anderson City

SD, 4/23/90 

TX, Nolan City Hospital District 2/12/90 TX, Dallas 

(delay election 

for new MOE) 

3/13/91* 

TX, Dallas 5/6/91 TX, Gonzales City

Water District 10/31/94 

TX, Karnes 10/31/94 TX, Andrews 

6/26/95 

Redistrictings 12

LA, Washington Parish SD 6/21/93 LA, Bossier 

Parish SD 

8/30/93 

LA congressional 

8/12/96* 

MS, Copiah City

4/11/83 

MS, Amite City 6/6/83 MS, Oktibbeha 

City 6/17/83* 

MS, Walthall City

9/30/91 

MS, Chickasaw City

3/26/93 

MS, Monroe City 9/17/93 MS, Chickasaw

City 4/11/95 

SC state senate 

4/1/97 

TX state senate 3/9/92* 

Objections Based on Minority

Language Provision Violations 

(Sections 4(f)(4) and/or 203) 

AZ, Apache 

County 7/17/87 

TX, Dawson 

County 8/16/85* 

AZ, Apache 

County 2/10/88 

TX, San Antonio 

10/21/94* 

NY, Bronx, 

Kings, and NY 

Counties 

8/9/93* 

TX, Judson 

Independent 

School District 

11/18/94* 

NY, Bronx, 

Kings, and NY 

Counties 

5/13/94* 

TX 2/17/95* 
Appendix A Supplemental Tables 73

Total objections 8

Objections Based on Registration 

Tests or Devices Violations 

(Sections 4 and 201) 

MS (witness

certification 

requirement for 

mail-in voter 

registration) 

5/1/92* 

Total objections 1

Objections Based on Voter 

Assistance Requirements 

Violations (Section 208) 

FL 1/15/85*

TX, Dawson

County 8/6/85* 

MS, Bolivar

County 4/16/84 

VA 9/11/84*

SC 9/11/84*

Total objections 5

Caption: Section 2 was instrumental in the objections interposed to judgeship, method of election, and districting changes between

1988 and 1997. The Justice Department also interposed objections based on violations of other provisions of the Voting Rights Act. 

*Indicates that the objection was based solely on the other provision of the Voting Rights Act. All objections not marked with an asterisk also were 

based on a determination that the jurisdiction had not met its burden of showing the absence of discriminatory purpose and effect. 

Sources: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, “Complete Listing of Objections Pursuant to Section 3(c) and 5 of the 

Voting Rights Act of 1965,” response to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) document request, July 31, 2004; supplemented by a review of 

all objection letters, as provided to USCCR, Aug. 20, 2004. 
74 Appendix A Supplemental Tables 

 TABLE A-7 

 Objections to Statewide Redistricting Plans Since 1965 

State 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s

Alabama House (2 plans) 

Senate (2 plans) 

Congress

Alaska House

Senate 

Arizona House/Senate** House/Senate (2

plans)** 

House/Senate** 

Florida Senate House

Georgia Congress

House 

Senate 

Congress 

House 

Senate 

Congress 

(2 plans) 

House (4 plans) 

*** 

Senate (3 plans) 

*** 

Louisiana House Congress

House 

Senate 

BESE**** 

Mississippi House*

Senate* 

Congress House

Senate (2 plans) 

New Mexico Not covered Senate 

New York Congress 

Assembly

Senate 

Congress 

Assembly

Senate 

Assembly

North Carolina House (2 plans) 

Senate (2 plans) 

Congress 

House (3 plans) 

Senate (2 plans) 

Congress 

House 

Senate 

South Carolina House 

Senate (2 plans) 

House House

Senate 

Texas House Congress

House 

Senate 

House 

Senate 

House 

Virginia House (2 plans) 

Senate 

House

Total number of plans 16 26 32 3 

Caption: After the 1980 and 1990 censuses, a substantial number of objections to redistricting plans were interposed.

Significantly fewer objections have been interposed after the 2000 census. 

* Mississippi subsequently obtained a Section 5 declaratory judgment for its House and Senate plans. Mississippi v. United States, 490 

F. Supp. 569 (D.D.C. 1979), aff’d mem., 444 U.S. 1050 (1980). 

** Arizona uses the same districting plan to elect both its State House and State Senate. 

*** The objections interposed on March 15, 1996 to plans for the Georgia State House and Senate subsequently were withdrawn on 

October 15, 1996. 

**** BESE is the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. 

Sources: Compiled from U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, Submission Tracking and Processing System 

(STAPS) data, as provided to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR), Sept. 20, 2004; U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights 

Division, Voting Section, “Complete Listing of Objections Pursuant to Section 3(c) and 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” response to 

USCCR document request, July 31, 2004; supplemented by a review of all objection letters, as provided to USCCR, Aug. 20, 2004. 
Appendix A Supplemental Tables 75

TABLE A-8 

Preclearance Statistics by State (July 1, 1982 to June 30, 2004) 

State 

Submissions 

(% of all 

submissions) 

Submitted 

changes 

Submission 

objections (% of 

all objections) 

Change 

objections 

Alabama 6,487 (7%) 22,773 56 (9%) 196 

Alaska 1,700 (2%) 5,490 1 2

Arizona 4,314 (5%) 24,993 18 (3%) 30 

Arkansas 6 7 0 0

California 841 (1%) 3,017 4 (1%) 60 

Colorado 26 61 0 0

Florida 758 (1%) 3,307 5 (1%) 14 

Georgia 15,245 (16%) 49,079 89 (14%) 346 

Hawaii 8 327 0 0

Illinois 4 13 0 0

Louisiana 8,652 (9 %) 22,196 112 (17%) 266 

Michigan 59 349 0 0

Mississippi 4,515 (5%) 11,223 114 (17%) 150 

New Hampshire 58 82 0 0 

New Mexico 52 165 1 1 

New York 852 (1%) 4,194 12 (2%) 14 

North Carolina 4,383 (5%) 11,530 45 (7%) 135 

South Carolina 6,808 (7%) 21,788 77 (12%) 798 

South Dakota 38 1,218 1 1 

Texas 32,983 (35%) 149,404 103 (16%) 185 

Virginia 7,286 (8%) 28,035 16 (2%) 25 

Wyoming 3 201 0 0

Total 95,078 359,452 654 2,223

Caption: Between July 1982 and June 2004, Georgia and Texas combined for 51 percent of Section 5

submissions and 30 percent of Section 5 objections. Over the same period, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South

Carolina experienced higher rates of objections than Georgia and Texas despite having fewer submissions. 

Note: Submission data are approximate (see notes to Table A-3). 

The South Carolina figure for objected-to changes includes a 1986 objection to 525 annexations. 

Sources: U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Civil Rights Division (CRD), Voting Section, “Section 5 Objection Determinations

June 30, 2005, <http://www.justice.gov/crt/voting/sec_5/obj_activ.htm> (last accessed December 15, 2005); DOJ, CRD, “Chart 

(B-1): Changes Received August 6, 1965 to June 30, 2004,” response to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights document reques

Oct. 8, 2004. 
76 Appendix A Supplemental Tables 

TABLE A-9 

Justice Department Enforcement of the Minority Language Requirements: Relief Granted in 

Lawsuits and Nonlitigation Agreements (1975 to Nov. 30, 2004) 

Jurisdiction 

(language) 

(date filed) Issue 

Initial 

Relief 

(date) 

Supplemental 

Relief (date) 

Relief includes 

Section 3(a) 

Examiners and 

Observers? 

Relief Includes 

Section 3(c) 

Preclearance 

Requirement? 

City and 

County of San 

Francisco, CA 

(Spanish and 

Chinese) 

(1978) 

Failure to provide 

translated voter 

registration 

information and 

bilingual poll 

officials 

TRO (1978) Preliminary

injunction (1979) 

Consent decree 

(1980) 

Yes No 

San Juan 

County, NM 

(Navajo) 

(1979) 

Failure to provide 

translations 

throughout the 

election process 

Stipulation 

(1980) 

Letter of 

agreement (1986) 

No No

San Juan 

County, NM 

(Navajo) 

(1983) 

Failure to provide 

translations 

throughout the 

election process 

Settlement 

(1984) 

Amended 

settlement (1990) 

Order extending 

federal examiner 

coverage (1997) 

Order extending 

federal examiner 

coverage (1998) 

Yes No

McKinley

County, NM 

(Navajo and 

subsequently

Zuni also) 

(1986) 

Failure to provide 

translations 

throughout the 

election process 

Consent 

decree 

(1986) 

Amended consent 

decree (1990) 

Amended 

complaint (1996) 

(including Zuni 

language) 

Stipulation (1977) 

NM and 

Sandoval 

County (Keres 

and Navajo) 

(1988) 

Failure to provide 

translations 

throughout the 

election process 

Settlement 

(1990) 

Consent decree 

(1994) 

Consent order 

(1997) (re: 

absentee voting in 

a 1997 special 

election) 

Yes (Sandoval 

County)

AZ (Apache 

and Navajo 

Counties 

(Navajo) 

(1988) 

Failure to provide 

translations 

throughout the 

election process 

Consent 

decree 

(1989) 

Amended consent 

decree (1993 

Covered under 

Section 6 and 

certified by the 

Attorney General 

Covered under 

Section 5 

Metro Dade 

County, FL

(Spanish and 

Milasuki) 

(1993) 

Failure to translate 

election pamphlet 

into Spanish 

Failure to provideelection info in 

Mikasuki 

TRO (1993 

(requiring 

provision of 

pamphlet in 

Spanish) 

Consent decree 

(1993) 

No No
Appendix A Supplemental Tables 77

Jurisdiction 

(language) 

(date filed) Issue 

Initial 

Relief 

(date) 

Supplemental 

Relief (date) 

Relief includes 

Section 3(a) 

Examiners and 

Observers? 

Relief Includes 

Section 3(c) 

Preclearance 

Requirement? 

Cibola County,

NM (Keres and 

Navajo) (1993) 

Failure to provide 

translations 

throughout the 

election process 

Stipulation 

(1994) 

Stipulation (2004) Yes Yes 

Socorro 

County, NM 

(Navajo) 

(1993) 

Failure to provide 

translations 

throughout the 

election process 

Consent 

agreement 

(1994) 

Modified Consent 

Agreement (2004) 

Yes Yes

Alameda 

County, CA 

(Chinese) 

(1995) 

Failure to provide 

translated election 

materials, bilingual 

poll officials and 

registrar’s office 

personnel 

Settlement 

agreement 

(1996) 

Yes Yes

Bernalillo 

County, NM 

(Navajo) 

(1998) 

Failure to provide 

translations 

throughout the 

election process 

Consent 

decree 

(1998) 

Stipulation (2003) Yes Yes 

City of 

Lawrence, MA 

(Spanish) 

(1998) 

Failure to provide 

translated election 

materials, oral 

language 

assistance at the 

polls and bilingual 

poll officials 

Settlement 

agreement 

(1999) 

No No

Passaic City

and Passaic 

County, NJ 

(Spanish) 

(1999) 

Failure to provide 

translated election 

materials and 

bilingual poll 

officials 

Consent 

decrees 

(2 in 1999) 

Order (providing 

additional relief) 

(2000) 

Orders (appointing 

independent 

elections monitor 

and extending the 

term of the 

monitor) (2000 

and 2001) 

Supplemental 

consent order 

(2001) 

Stipulation (2004) 

Yes No

Orange 

County, FL

Failure to provide 

translated 

materials and 

bilingual poll 

officials 

Consent 

decree 

(2002) 

No, but DOJ may

observe elections 

No 

Brentwood 

Union Free 

School District, 

NY (Spanish) 

(2003) 

Failure to provide 

translated 

materials and 

bilingual poll 

officials 

Consent 

decree 

(2003) 

Yes No
78 Appendix A Supplemental Tables 

Jurisdiction 

(language) 

(date filed) Issue 

Initial 

Relief 

(date) 

Supplemental 

Relief (date) 

Relief includes 

Section 3(a) 

Examiners and 

Observers? 

Relief Includes 

Section 3(c) 

Preclearance 

Requirement? 

Harris County,

TX

(Vietnamese) 

(2004) 

Failure to provide 

translated 

materials and 

bilingual poll 

officials 

Memo of 

Understand

ing (2004) 

Covered under

Section 6, but not 

certified by the 

Attorney General 

Covered under 

Section 5 

San Benito 

County, CA 

(Spanish) 

(2004) 

Failure to provide 

translated 

materials and 

bilingual poll 

officials 

Consent 

decree 

(2004) 

Yes No

San Diego 

County, CA 

(Spanish, 

Tagalog and 

Vietnamese) 

(2004) 

Failure to provide 

translated 

materials and 

bilingual poll 

officials 

Memo of 

agreement 

(ledged 

with the 

court) 

(2004) 

Stipulation (2004) Yes No 

Suffolk County,

NY (Spanish) 

(2004) 

Failure to provide 

translated 

materials and 

bilingual poll 

officials 

Consent 

decree 

(2004) 

Yes No

Yakima 

County, WA

(Spanish) 

(2004) 

Failure to provide 

translated 

materials and 

bilingual poll 

officials 

Consent 

decree 

(2004) 

Yes No

Ventura 

County, CA 

(Spanish) 

Failure to provide 

translated 

materials and 

bilingual poll 

officials 

Consent 

decree 

(2004) 

Yes No

Caption: None of the lawsuits filed between 1982 and 2004 produced contested litigation. Seventeen of the 20 lawsuits were

resolved through settlements without any litigated order from the court, and there have been no trials on the merits in any of

the cases. Eight of the first 11 lawsuits were filed in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah and dealt with the provision of oral

information in historically unwritten American Indian languages. The most recent nine lawsuits filed since 1998 dealt with

the provision of election information in Spanish. Lawsuits have also been filed as a result of a lack of information in 

Chinese, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. 

Sources: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, “Voting Section Cases in Which the United States’ 

Participation Began Since October 1, 1976, “ response to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) document request, Aug. 20, 2004; 

supplemented by a review of all lawsuits and litigation agreements, as provided to USCCR, Aug. 20, 2004. 
Appendix A Supplemental Tables 79

TABLE A-10 

Federal Examiners and Observers (July 1, 1982 through June 30, 2004) 

State Section 6 

Coverage Since

7/1/82 

Section 6 

Certifications by

AG

Section 3(a) 

Coverage Since

7/1/82 

Examiner 

Assignments 

Since 7/1/82 

Observer 

Assignments 

Since 7/1/82 

Alabama Statewide 22 counties (four 

since 7/1/82) 

No None

89 

Alaska Statewide None No None None

Arizona Statewide Three counties

(two since 7/1/82) 

No None

40 

California Four counties None San Francisco 

County (1978-85) 

Alameda County

(1996-2001) 

San Diego County

(2004-07) 

San Benito 

County (2004-06) 

Ventura County

(2004-07) 

None 

7 

Colorado One county (bailed 

out in 1984) 

None No None None

Connecticut Three towns (bailed 

out in 1983 or 1984) 

None No None None

Florida Five counties None No None None

Georgia Statewide 29 counties (10 

since 7/1/82) 

No Two counties (in 

1982) 56

Hawaii One county (bailed 

out in 1984) 

None No None None

Idaho One county

(bailed out in 1982) 

None No None None

Illinois No Alexander County

(1983-88) 

Cicero (2000-05) 

None 

3 

Louisiana Statewide 12 parishes (one 

since 7/1/82) 

 St. Landry Parish 

(1979 until further 

order of the court) 

None 

9 

Massachusetts Nine towns (bailed 

out in 1983) 

None No None None

Michigan Two townships None Hamtramck (2000-

06) 

None 

8 
80 Appendix A Supplemental Tables 

State Section 6 

Coverage Since

7/1/82 

Section 6 

Certifications by

AG

Section 3(a) 

Coverage Since

7/1/82 

Examiner 

Assignments 

Since 7/1/82 

Observer 

Assignments 

Since 7/1/82 

Mississippi Statewide 50 counties (eight 

since 7/1/82) 

No Six counties (in 

1983) 242

Nebraska No Thurston County

(1979-84) 

None None

New Hampshire 10 towns None No None None 

New Jersey No Passaic County

(1999-04) 

None 

17 

New Mexico No Bernalillo County

(1998-05) 

Chaves County

(1984-94) 

Cibola County

(1984-2006) 

Curry County

(1984-94) 

McKinley County

(1984-94, 1997-

01) 

Otero County

(1984-02) 

Sandoval County

(1984-04) 

Socorro County

(1994-04) 

None 

73 

New York 3 NYC counties Three counties (all 

since 7/1/82) 

Brentwood Union 

Free School 

District (2003-

07) 

Suffolk County

(2004-08) 

None 

40 

North Carolina 40 counties One county (one 

since 7/1/82) 

No None

6 

Pennsylvania No Berks County

(2003-07) 

None 

3 

South Carolina Statewide 11 (seven since 

7/1/82) 

No None

23 

South Dakota Two counties None Buffalo County

(2004-13) 

None 

1 
Appendix A Supplemental Tables 81

State Section 6 

Coverage Since

7/1/82 

Section 6 

Certifications by

AG

Section 3(a) 

Coverage Since

7/1/82 

Examiner 

Assignments 

Since 7/1/82 

Observer 

Assignments 

Since 7/1/82 

Texas Statewide 17 (six since 

7/1/82) 

No None

10 

Utah None San Juan County

(1984-02) 

None 

9 

Virginia Statewide (except

for nine independent 

cities & counties 

that have bailed out 

since 1997) 

None No None None

Washington None Yakima County

(2004-06) 

Covered as of 

September 

2004 

Covered as of 

September 2004 

Wyoming One county (bailed 

out in 1982) 

None No None None

Caption: No federal examiners have been appointed to register voters since 1983. They were used last in 1982 and 1983, but to

register voters only in eight counties for a few days in each county. From 1982 to 2004, the Justice Department utilized polling

place observers roughly 500 times in elections in counties and parishes covered by the Section 4 coverage formula and

certified for examiners and observers by the Attorney General. In recent years, the Department of Justice expanded the

observer program by sending observers to jurisdictions not covered by Section 4 or 3(a). The Department of Justice obtained

agreements from jurisdictions to permit the observers into the polling places. 

Note: Counts of observer assignments were made by separately counting each election for which observers were assigned to a specific county

or other subjurisdiction in a particular state. (For example, the assignment of observers to 10 counties in a particular state for a specific election 

was counted as 10; the assignment of observers to a particular county for a primary and then for the primary runoff was counted as two; the

assignment of observers to two municipalities in the same county for municipal elections held on the same date was counted as two.)

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, “About Federal Examiners and Federal Observers,” updated Oct. 19,

2005, <http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/examine/activ_exam.htm> (last accessed Jan. 30, 2006). 

CONCURRING STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER ABIGAIL 

THERNSTROM 

I am proud to have my name associated with this report on Voting Rights Enforcement and 

Reauthorization. The Commission has played a long and influential role in investigating the 

enforcement of Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment voting rights, and, in issuing this report, 

the agency continues that important tradition. I am particularly pleased by the intellectual 

integrity of the work, credit for which goes to our often uncelebrated staff. The report is 

scrupulous in making clear the complexity of the questions that today swirl around the 

enforcement of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and its subsequent amendments. Rather than arriving 

at inevitably controversial conclusions, it attempts to depict the landscape—providing an 

invaluable picture of the variety of views that different observers bring to the table. This is a 

report that serious scholars of the statute will be reading for years to come. 

No one can doubt the historical importance of the Voting Rights Act, arguably the most 

important of America’s civil rights statutes. It made good on the promise of the Fifteenth 

Amendment, ninety-five years late. By enfranchising southern blacks, it revolutionized politics 

in the nation as a whole. And it revolutionized the status of blacks as well. “Right or wrong, we 

don’t aim to let them vote. We just don’t aim to let ‘em vote,” a Mississippi Democrat told 

political scientist V.O. Key in the mid-1940s. As Maynard Jackson, Atlanta’s first black mayor, 

was later to say, the Talmadges, Stennises, the Bilbos, and the Thurmonds all knew that once 

blacks got their Fifteenth Amendment rights no white supremacist would hold office securely. 

With the passage of the 1965 act, America was changed irrevocably. At long last. 

I write this concurrence in rejoinder to Commissioner Yaki’s dissent. His suggestion that the 

Commission in issuing this report has abandoned “wholesale” the civil rights battlefield is a 

baffling charge. Surely he knows that the definition of voting rights has lost the moral simplicity 

that it had in 1965 when the Voting Rights Act was passed. Today, the issue is not access to the 

polling booth, but the entitlement of minority voters to, say, eight safe black and Hispanic 

legislative seats when seven have been drawn and an eighth requires abandoning competing and 

traditionally legitimate considerations. Like racial and ethnic preferences in education, 

employment, and contracting, the protection of minority candidates for political office from

white competition (by means of racial gerrymandering) has become a question about which 

equally moral people can disagree. 

Likewise, the extension of temporary, emergency provisions that, in 1965, were expected to 

expire in five years is a question over which honorable people can differ. Those provisions were 

analogous to a curfew imposed in the wake of a riot—an emergency measure enacted with the 

expectation that it would be lifted as soon as conditions allowed. So the question is: Do 

conditions today—forty years after the passage of the act—allow that emergency “curfew” to be 

lifted? The Commission’s report provides much data of use in formulating an answer—data that 

Commissioner Yaki describes as “cold.” He wants, instead “field interviews,” “examples of
84 Concurrence

harassment and intimidation,” and the like—anecdotes based on talking to people selected to 

make his points. But stories are just ... stories. And I do not find them useful as evidence. 

Everyone celebrates both the basic enfranchisement of southern blacks and the election of 

minorities to office—a consequence in part of race-conscious districting, but in great part the 

result of a revolution in racial attitudes and the status of minorities across America. Race-driven 

districting imposed by the Voting Rights Act has not been responsible for the election of black 

mayors in New York, Los Angeles, and other majority-white cities, some of which have been 

unaffected by the enforcement of the statute. He seems to think the country has been frozen in 

time, at least that racism is still so pervasive that black and Hispanic candidates cannot win in 

majority-white settings. Indeed, his dissent contains a truly bewildering statement: “Newer 

communities, such as Latinos or Asian Americans, are encountering the same types of 

discrimination faced by African Americans (and continuing to this date) 40 years ago.” (Italics 

mine.) I have to assume that Commissioner Yaki does know what American apartheid looked 

like forty years ago. And he should be familiar, as well, with the current data on the status of 

Asians and Hispanics today. In general, on the level of current racism, I would be glad to match 

my statistics against his, although I suspect he would mainly offer anecdotes that, again, do not 

meet social science standards. 

The dissent states that the Voting Rights Act “was designed not simply to prevent 

disfranchisement and increase minority turnout, but to give meaning and substance to the 

franchise once utilized.” It argues that “preclearance, in its inception, was created to prevent the 

type of mischief that dilutes the growth and influence of minority voters.” The point is 

historically inaccurate, as the congressional hearings that preceded passage of the act make clear. 

In 1965, the act had a simple aim: ensuring basic Fifteenth Amendment rights to southern blacks, 

kept from the polls by fraudulent literacy tests, violence, and intimidation. Four years later, 

however, it became apparent that Mississippi would play nakedly racist games with the method 

of election in order to stop blacks from becoming county commissioners (“supervisors”), and the 

Supreme Court, in response, redefined the meaning of disfranchisement to include the dilution of 

the minority vote. 

Basic enfranchisement had been the sole goal of the statute, but confronted with such a bald 

maneuver on the part of Mississippi, the Court could hardly refuse to act. Section 5, the 

preclearance provision, had been envisioned as a prophylactic device to prevent backsliding, and 

Mississippi had clearly tried to pull blacks back from the gains they could expect to make. 

Nevertheless, Allen v. State Board of Elections (1969) rewrote the Voting Rights Act. As Justice 

John Marshall Harlan pointed out, and Chief Justice Earl Warren acknowledged, Allen adopted 

“the reapportionment cases’ expansive concept of voting....” It adopted, that is, that concern 

with the weight of the ballots cast that was at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, equal 

population decisions. 

If countywide voting, new districting maps, and other changes in the method of voting could 

“nullify” the ability of black voters “to elect the candidate of their choice” (in the words of the 

Chief Justice), there were obviously votes that counted and votes that did not. Section 5, a 

provision initially inserted to guard against the manipulation of an electoral system for racist 

ends, had evolved into a means to ensure that black votes had value—had the power, that is, to 
Concurrence 85

elect blacks. For that was inevitably the meaning of ballots that carried their proper weight. By 

what other measure could that weight be gauged? The logic of Allen was an invitation to insist 

on proportional racial representation—safe seats in proportion to the minority population. (After 

all, would anyone argue that blacks were entitled to less than their share of votes that “fully” 

counted?) And yet the standard of proportional representation is no less controversial, no less 

debatable, in the context of voting rights enforcement than in that of higher education 

admissions. 

The Court, in Allen, actually delivered a mixed message: On the one hand, it issued an invitation 

to regard any election scheme that arguably “diluted” the power of the black vote as 

objectionable. On the other hand, it did stick to the original conception of Section 5 as antibacksliding. The dissent completely ignores the importance of retaining the backsliding notion, 

reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in 1976 and in subsequent decisions. That understanding of the 

preclearance provision was absolutely central to the original act and remains so. And thus in 

1965, as the distinguished civil rights attorney Joseph Rauh put it, the provision was included in 

the statute “to stop ways around voting legislation ... simply [as] self-defense.” Congress was 

well aware that southern states were adept at the fine art of circumvention. Banishing literacy 

tests, it was feared, might not be sufficient; new devices could be created with the same impact 

as old ones, and the vote could be blocked anew. The fear, in other words, was of what the Court 

later termed “retrogression.” 

That is, at the outset the preclearance provision was seen as nothing more than a corollary of 

Section 4—the latter banning literacy tests, the former making sure that the effect of that ban 

stuck. The demand that federal authorities approve any new voting procedure in counties and 

states in which literacy tests had been suspended had an unambiguous and limited aim: guarding 

against renewed disfranchisement, the use of the back door once the front one was blocked. Any 

other understanding of Section 5 both violates the original logic of the statute and turns the 

provision into one that cannot be enforced through an administrative process, a point to which I 

will return below. 

Section 5 protects against both discriminatory “effect” and “purpose.” The Supreme Court’s first 

opportunity to define the meaning of discriminatory “effect” came in Beer v. United States

(1976). The issue was councilmanic districts in New Orleans, and the lower court found the 

districting plan drawn after the 1970 census to be discriminatory in effect. None of the old wards 

had black majorities; the proposed plan contained two out of five that were majority-black 

(although only one in which the majority of registered voters were African American). 

Moreover, blacks had been elected at large to offices other than the city council. But the district 

court found that New Orleans blacks had a “natural potential” of 2.42 seats and the plan only 

guaranteed one. 

The high Court vacated the judgment. Whether New Orleans could have devised a plan likely to 

result in more black councilmen was not the question, Justice Stewart contended. It was, instead, 

whether the “ability of minority groups to participate in the political process and to elect their 

choices to office [had been] augmented, diminished, or not affected by the change in voting.” 

How could a change that improved the position of minorities be called discriminatory? The 

purpose of Section 5 had been to bar changes that would result in a “retrogression in the position 
86 Concurrence

of racial minorities with respect to their effective exercise of the electoral franchise.” Since the 

change at issue—new district lines—had actually increased the likelihood of a victorious black 

candidate, it could hardly be termed “retrogressive.” 

Backsliding—the standard that the Court embraced in Beer and that clearly flows from the 

structure of the 1965 act—is a question appropriate to administrative review. The alternative—

that of equal electoral opportunity—is not. Adjudicating competing claims about racial fairness, 

in some absolute sense, requires, as the Supreme Court has noted, an “intensely local appraisal,” 

the specific, detailed knowledge that only a court can obtain. Voting section procedures are no 

substitute for a trial. In fact, there is no surrogate for a court; the institution is sui generis.” In the 

internal memos that pass for argument within the Justice Department, no one speaks for the 

jurisdiction. A city undertaking an annexation will submit required material, but it may have no 

opportunity to challenge the evidence (perhaps hearsay) that minority or other contacts, often 

arbitrary selected, provide. The forum is not judicious and the opinions are not judicial. A letter 

of objection seldom reveals the basis of decision; stock phrases substitute for close analysis. 

In addition, to allow a process of federal administrative review to settle the broad and subtle 

question of equal electoral opportunity is to permit excessive intrusion upon constitutionally 

sanctioned local prerogatives. Section 5 is a drastic provision. The decision to alter the location 

of a polling place even half a block or to draw a district line along a natural boundary is now 

subject to federal veto if it seems even possibly racially suspect. The burden is on the jurisdiction 

to prove the racial neutrality of its action beyond any doubt. In other words, Section 5 entails a 

radical shift in federal-state relations, originally sanctioned on an emergency basis and assumed 

to be of limited scope. 

The organized civil rights groups have never liked the Beer retrogression standard for measuring 

discriminatory effect under Section 5. Their view has been that of the lower court in the case: 

racial “fairness” is the measure of discriminatory effect, and blacks are entitled to officeholding 

in proportion to the black population (to the degree that districting plans can provide it). In this 

belief, they were joined by the Department of Justice in the 1980s and 1990s. One reason why 

the mainstream civil rights groups are so committed to another extension of the Section 5—

apparently believing that the emergency justifying the special provisions is permanent—is that 

the Justice Department has simply ignored the Court’s holding in Beer and forced jurisdictions, 

under the guise of enforcement, to draw egregiously race-driven maps in the interest of 

maximizing minority officeholding. 

One of many appalling stories illustrating the DOJ drive to get what the ACLU has called “maxblack” districting maps is spelled out by the Supreme Court in Miller v. Johnson (1995). As the 

lower court discovered, in the process of drawing congressional districts for Georgia the “DOJ 

was more accessible—and amenable—to the opinions of the ACLU than to those of the Attorney 

General of the State of Georgia.” It was from the ACLU plan that the Civil Rights Division of 

the Justice Department lifted its own objection letters, which made clear to the state’s General 

Assembly that ‘preclearance would not be forthcoming without adopting this raison d'être of the 

max-black proposals.” The DOJ cultivated informants within the legislature, and used their 

information to float disgusting accusations against, for instance, a black legislator (labeled a 

“quintessential Uncle Tom”), while keeping the names of such “informants” secret. And the link 
Concurrence 87

between the DOJ and the ACLU meant that an objection letter (to a plan that clearly did not 

violate Section 5) arrived in the office of the state’s attorney general after the Georgia Black 

Caucus was already discussing it with the press. 

As noted above, Section 5 protects against purposeful discrimination, as well as discriminatory 

effect (retrogression). In the original act, the two “prongs” (as they’re called) were inseparable. 

In 1965, the framers and sponsors of the act hoped to eliminate every device whose impact was 

to keep southern blacks from the polls—whatever its stated purpose. Hence, Section 5 refers to 

changes that are discriminatory in either purpose or effect. But in the context, “purpose” and 

“effect” were close to interchangeable terms; the former was simply circumstantial evidence of 

the latter. That is, when the question was the legality of a recent alteration in voting procedure in 

a jurisdiction known to have had a long history of Fifteenth Amendment violations, the effect of 

the alteration was assumed to suggest strongly its purpose. The adverse impact of a sudden 

change in rules involving the franchise was viewed as a signal of improper motive when that 

change took place in the South and affected newly enfranchised blacks. 

Over time, however, the Justice Department came to view a reluctance to create a maximum

number of majority-black districts as—in and of itself—evidence of discriminatory intent. It's an 

indefensible notion. Such an interpretation would make the effects test contained in Section 5 

superfluous; a finding of discriminatory purpose would suffice to condemn every electoral plan 

with an allegedly insufficient number of safe black single-member districts. In addition, the 

authors of the Voting Rights Act and its amendments explicitly and wisely rejected the notion of

a “right” number of black legislative seats. Black candidates were not guaranteed safe districts in 

which to run. A state that fails to adopt a plan pushed, say, by the ACLU or the NAACP 

cannot—on that basis—properly be charged with racism. When the Justice Department suggests 

otherwise, it gives every minority organization with a “better” districting scheme the potential 

power to veto arrangements negotiated in good faith by all the major players. 

Commissioner Yaki would like to see Congress overturn the Supreme Court’s 2000 decision in 

Reno v. Bossier Parish School Board (Bossier II). As the Commission report notes, the Court 

“held that the Section 5 purpose standard is limited to a determination of whether an intent to 

cause retrogression, not simply maintain the status quo—however discriminatory the status quo 

might be—motivated the voting change.” It was a holding based squarely on Beer. Nevertheless, 

the dissent says it is impossible to underestimate the impact of the Court’s decision on 

Department of Justice objections. “At least one commentator,” it states, “has noted that under the 

Bossier II standard, a blatantly discriminatory redistricting plan which would have continued a 

history of zero districts for minority elected officials would not be found to be in violation of 

Section 5.” 

Well, yes, that’s the retrogression standard and it applies to all of Section 5, the Court has said. 

And that is the only standard consistent with the logic of the 1965 act—with Section 5 as an antibacksliding provision. On the other hand, last I knew, the Fourteenth Amendment had not been 

repealed; nor had the Voting Rights Act been amended to eliminate the right of plaintiffs to sue 

under Section 2 on the ground that a method of voting has a discriminatory “result.” The dissent 

argues that “especially in a state as large as Texas, with population centers throughout the state, 

the ability of Latino populations to mobilize Section 2 challenges is very limited.” But that claim
88 Concurrence

is very misleading. By and large, Section 2 suits are top-down; they require no grassroots 

organization. And thus civil rights organizations like MALDEF (itself a top-down creation by 

the Ford Foundation) will find jurisdictions that they believe are vulnerable to Section 2 suits, 

find the plaintiffs, and fund the litigation. And when they prevail (which is extremely easy to do 

given the highly questionable legal standards developed in the case law), they collect attorneys’ 

fees, of course. 

The dissent further argues that withdrawal letters are an indicator of the positive impact of

Section 5. (These are letters in which a jurisdiction backs off its proposed change and thus 

withdraws its original request for preclearance.) But the number of such letters would seem most 

likely to be a sign that many jurisdictions decided that it was futile to hope for preclearance, 

given the Justice Department’s commitment to egregiously racially gerrymandered districts in an 

effort to meet the standard of racial and ethnic proportionality. In addition, there are high 

political costs to appearing in opposition to black and Hispanic voting “rights,” even though that 

alleged “opposition” may in fact be a perfectly legitimate, Supreme Court-sanctioned concern 

with the Justice Department’s naked distortion of the law. Likewise, whereas Commissioner 

Yaki suggests that the drop in the number of objections “may be evidence that covered 

jurisdictions now understand that they must comply with Section 5,” the real story may (again) 

be a capitulation to DOJ legal standards that are indefensible. 

A related point: “Especially in Texas, the history of discrimination against Latino voters since 

the 1982 extension has been a case history for the continued need for Section 5 protections,” the 

dissent argues. But it is pointing to a period in which the Justice Department was finding 

discrimination in every failure to draw a maximum number of possible majority-Latino districts 

in the Lone Star state. 

“Data compiled by independent third parties shows that racially polarized voting exists at almost 

every elected office level, from ‘governor to the recorder of mortgages.’... It is pervasive and 

all-encompassing...a troubling trend...,” Commissioner Yaki asserts. To begin with, the 

category “independent third parties” appears, from this dissent, to consist entirely of professional 

plaintiffs experts and attorneys who speak for MALDEF and other advocacy organizations. And 

what is the evidence upon which he draws in describing a “trend” suggesting increasing 

polarization? The measurement of polarization is no straightforward matter. The dissent accepts 

Justice William J. Brennan’s amazing definition of polarization that rejects the distinction 

between partisan bloc voting and that which is racially motivated, and sees racial polarization in 

every jurisdiction in which the majority of blacks vote for Democrats, while the majority of 

whites cast their ballots for Republicans. That Republican vote may of course be quite unrelated 

to race. If the Brennan definition makes sense to Commissioner Yaki, okay, but it seems absurd 

to me. 

The dissent calls the results-driven work of such experts as Richard Engstrom “independent,” but 

labels the Commission’s careful work as “biased.” I strongly suspect that an unbiased report, in 

Commissioner Yaki’s view, is one that squares with the views of the Leadership Conference on 

Civil Rights and allied groups. If I am wrong, I would certainly welcome a definition of 

“objective” and “neutral.” 
Concurrence 89

I return to my opening point: The Commission’s report is one that both the staff and all

Commissioners should be proud of. But if there is not consensus, at least there is vigorous, open 

and respectful debate within the Commission itself—which, for many years, was not the case.

DISSENTING STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER MICHAEL YAKI 

JOINED IN BY COMMISSIONER ARLAN MELENDEZ 

Fifty years ago, a young woman named Rosa Parks braved jail time, scorn, intimidation, and 

worse to assert her right to sit in the front of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. That single act set 

in motion an inexorable chain of events that led to the belated recognition by the President and 

the Congress that federal leadership was required in the arena of civil rights. Thus, late in 1957, 

the Commission on Civil Rights was born, charged with a mandate to investigate and make 

recommendations to the executive and legislative branches on how best to end racial 

discrimination and achieve equality in this country through the exercise of the federal power. 

One of the seminal early achievements of the bipartisan Commission was its 1961 report on 

Voting Rights in this country.1

 That report, in which the Commission journeyed to the Deep 

South to conduct hearings, subpoena witnesses, and gather data, was the genesis of legislation 

that would become the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 

In subsequent decades the Commission has conducted thorough monitoring of the 

implementation and enforcement, successes and failures, of the Voting Rights Act.2 Throughout 

these decades, the Commission has never wavered in its support and belief that the Voting 

Rights Act, including the “temporary” provisions that have been extended time and again, is a 

necessary and critical component of the American civil rights agenda which has yet to be 

concluded. 

Until now. 

This Commission, in this statutory report (hereafter “the Commission Report”), abandons its 

historic support for the extension of Sections 4 through 9 and Section 203 of the Voting Rights 

Act. It offers no recommendation other than a series of “questions” for executive and legislative 

branches that, by themselves, are hollow and with little moral or legal force, and even scarcer 

facts, behind them. Far from continuing “the Commission’s record of service in the field of 

voting rights,” the Commission Report constitutes a wholesale abandonment of the field of battle 

that, until now, the Commission had fought on behalf of and in partnership with African 

Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans for full participation in the franchise. 

1

 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR), U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Report, Book 1: Voting, 1961. 

2

 USCCR, The Voting Rights Act.... The First Months, 1965; USCCR, Political Participation, 1968; USCCR, 

The Voting Rights Act: Ten Years After, 1975; USCCR, The Voting Rights Act: Unfulfilled Goals, 1981. 
92 Dissent

Extension of the temporary provisions is not, as some critics would say, a declaration of defeat 

that the Voting Rights Act has been a failure. Nor is it to discount the substantial gains made by 

minorities in the exercise of the franchise in this country. On the other hand, nor should the 

success of the Voting Rights Act in increasing the number of minority voters and minority 

elected officials3

 be held against it and argue against extension. 

No sentient being can argue that the Voting Rights Act has not been a success. No one can argue 

that the participation of minorities in the electoral process has not made great strides, and the 

election of minorities in local, state, and the federal government is testament to the power and 

efficacy of the Act. 

But it is another to conclude that the need for the temporary provisions has run its course. This is 

where the Commission Report fails. Any meaningful analysis and discussion of the temporary 

provisions of the Voting Rights Act must examine not simply voter participation rates or the 

numbers of minority elected officials in this country, as this report has done. Nor can it simply 

look at the cold data tracking objections under the preclearance standard of Section 5, as this 

report has done. Instead, we must examine the true purpose and effect of the Voting Rights Act 

and the nature of the temporary provisions in fulfilling its purpose. Only then can we conclude, 

as we must, that the temporary provisions of the Voting Rights Act not only must be renewed, 

but renewed with additional safeguards and enforcement standards. 

Intent and Section 5 

The Voting Rights Act was designed not simply to prevent disfranchisement and increase 

minority turnout, but to give meaning and substance to the franchise once utilized. In simple 

terms, it would be meaningless for a jurisdiction to grant someone the right to vote while, on the 

other hand, that same jurisdiction created a system to ensure that the vote would have little to no 

meaning. Decades ago, this meant that local elected officials retired to the proverbial smokefilled room and drew maps that so diluted the impact of minority votes that it ensured that 

minorities never had opportunities for elected office. Today, sophisticated computer programs 

still attempt to minimize minority participation by creating max-pack districts of minority 

voters—creating opportunities for minority elected officials, to be sure, but still limiting the 

overall opportunities that could be created through fairer, more equitable, and ultimately more 

competitive district boundaries. 

Thus, the continued need for Section 5. Preclearance, in its inception, was created to prevent the 

type of mischief that dilutes the growth and influence of minority voters. While perhaps 

temporary in creation, in fact the struggle for equality continues, particularly as the Voting 

Rights Act deals with two growing communities not contemplated in the 1965 Act—Hispanic 

and Asian Americans. 

3

 On a personal note, I was one such minority elected official in California as a member of the San Francisco Board 

of Supervisors. 
Dissent 93

Declining Objections Do Not Support Nonrenewal 

The Commission Report fails on several analytical fronts with regard to its treatment of

Section 5. First, it largely relies on only three data sets: (1) that African American turnout has 

increased in the South; (2) the rate of Department of Justice objections has decreased over time 

and (3) there are more minority elected officials. 

The fact is, one would expect that if the Voting Rights Act and Section 5 were of utility, you 

would track these three trends in the directions noted in the report. Where the Commission 

Report fails miserably, however, is taking this data to the next level of data gathering and 

analysis. 

For example, the National Commission on the Voting Rights Act (NCVRA) has done a detailed 

analysis of Section 5 objections as well as other indicators of Section 5 at work in covered 

jurisdictions. One such indicator within the Section 5 context are withdrawal letters—where a 

jurisdiction withdraws its proposed change or changes in question, usually in response to 

requests for further information from the Department of Justice. According to the NCVRA, there 

were at least 205 withdrawal letters from 1982 and December 2003.4

When combined with other variables5 that are indicators of Section 5 at work, it is self-evident 

that Section 5 continues to be an important tool in enforcing the Voting Rights Act. If one plots 

these variables over time, as shown in Dissent Appendix A, there is a very consistent level of 

enforcement-related activity related to Section 5 from 1982 to the present, in contrast to the 

findings of the Commission Report. 

The Commission’s reliance on the statistical decrease in objections, therefore, is misleading as to 

the continued import of Section 5. The decline of objections over time may be expected as 

covered jurisdictions comply with the Voting Rights Act OR it could be attributed to a drop in 

enforcement activities related to the current Administration, which now spans the last five years 

of data.6

 The impact that the Supreme Court decision in Reno v. Bossier Parish School Board7 

(Bossier II) had on Department of Justice objections also cannot be underestimated. In Bossier 

II, the Supreme Court ruled that the intent standard of Section 5 required not simply a 

discriminatory purpose, but that the action proposed by a jurisdiction would make the situation 

worse for minorities than before—the so-called “retrogression” standard. At least one 

commentator has noted that under the Bossier II standard, a blatantly discriminatory redistricting 

4 National Commission on the Voting Rights Act, Protecting Minority Voters: The Voting Rights Act at Work 1982-

2005, February 2006 (hereafter cited as NCVRA Report), pp. 58-59. 

5

 Other variables include: declaratory judgment actions, observer coverages pursuant to Section 5, and Department

of Justice enforcement actions. NCVRA Report, p. 76. 

6

 There are even allegations that vigorous enforcement of Section 5 is discouraged or punished within the current

Department. See NCVRA Report, p. 77, and endnote 261. William Yeomans, a former career staff attorney in the 

Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, published an article in Legal Affairs in which he wrote 

“decisions increasingly were made in isolation from career attorneys and were communicated as orders. Attorneys 

who sought to engage in discussion or propose alternative approaches were viewed as disloyal and suffered the 

consequences.” 

7

 528 U.S. 320 (2000). 
94 Dissent

plan which would have continued a history of zero districts for minority elected officials would 

not be found to be in violation of Section 5.8

An upcoming report reveals that in the 1990s Section 5 objections based upon the pre-Bossier II

intent standard comprised 43 percent of the total of objections letters (151) issued by the 

Department of Justice. Post-Bossier II, the percentage of objection letters based upon the intent 

standard decreased to a total of 2 between 2001 and 2004.9

 While the authors do not attribute the 

decline entirely to the new Bossier II standard, as has been observed, “[t]he sheer reduction in 

the number of overall number of Section 5 objections since the Bossier Parish decision also 

suggests that the loss of a meaningful intent standard has substantially reduced the effectiveness 

of Section 5.”10 The Commission Report wholly ignores this data. 

Deterrence Impact of Section 5 

The Commission Report completely ignores the deterrent effect and impact of Section 5. For 

example, the drop in objections may be evidence that covered jurisdictions now understand that 

they must comply with Section 5. It may be evidence that jurisdictions have developed 

procedures to ensure the likelihood of preclearance. Anecdotal evidence exists that local officials 

have become more sophisticated in meeting with local advocates of minority voting interests to 

ensure changes are in compliance with Section 5.11

Deterrence cannot be overstated. Like any regulatory provision in government, deterrence has its 

own continuing merit and use. People, or in this case, jurisdictions, adopt behavior and practices 

designed to incorporate the goal of compliance. As in the case of a stop sign at an intersection, 

the fact that the number of collisions decreases over time is not an argument to say that there is 

no longer a need for a stop sign. Removing the stop sign may, and probably will, result in a spike 

of collisions. Similarly, removing Section 5 from the arsenal of the Voting Rights Act may result 

in a renewal of the discriminatory behavior sought to be prevented. Given the fact that racism

still rears its ugly head in this country, including in the context of Voting Rights (see discussion 

of Section 2, below), not renewing Section 5 is a risk that our country should not, and cannot 

take. 

Lack of Data regarding Latino Voters 

The severe limitations of the Commission Report can be seen in the lack of data concerning the 

fastest growing minority group in this country: Latino voters. 

8 Brenda Wright, managing attorney, National Voting Rights Institute, testimony before the U.S. House of

Representatives Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, November 1, 2005 

9

 Peyton McCrary, Christopher Seaman, and Richard Valelly, “The End of Preclearance as We Knew It: How the 

Supreme Court Transformed Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act,” Michigan Journal of Race and Law 11 (Spring 

2006), forthcoming. 

10 Testimony of Brenda Wright, supra. 

11 NCVRA Report, pp. 57, 80. 
Dissent 95

Latinos now outnumber African Americans. Even though the proportion of noncitizens makes up 

a significant number of Latinos in the voter population, the voting rate among citizens is still at a 

much lower rate than Caucasians—45 percent as compared to 62 percent.12 This disparity 

requires further examination by the Commission. 

Especially in Texas, the history of discrimination against Latino voters since the 1982 extension 

has been a case history for the continued need for Section 5 protections. The Department of 

Justice has interposed a number of times in the 1990s on cases that sought to dilute the influence 

of Latino voters. The cases involved redistricting, annexations, and method of election changes. 

The fact that the report states that the “percentage of objections is highly disproportionate to that 

of submitted changes” does not diminish the findings of the Department of Justice that in those 

cases where objections were filed, the Department of Justice found egregious violations of the 

Voting Rights Act that constituted blatant discrimination.13 

Without the presence of Section 5, many of the jurisdictions involved would have effectively 

gone unnoticed. Especially in a state as large as Texas, with population centers throughout the 

state, the ability of Latino populations to mobilize Section 2 challenges is very limited. 

Discounting/Ignoring Racially Polarized Voting 

Data compiled by independent third parties shows that racially polarized voting exists at almost 

every elected office level, from “governor to the recorder of mortgages.”14 The data extends from

Louisiana to South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and North Carolina, and Texas. It was 

found with Latino populations and Native Americans.15 The mere fact that it is pervasive and allencompassing should be a subject of extensive Commission hearing and report. See Dissent 

Appendix B, tables D-1, D-2 and D-3. 

Racially polarized voting is a serious component in vote dilution. At-large methods of election, 

the need for adequate bilingual materials where Latino and Asian American voters are present, 

and redistricting are all implicated by racially polarized voting. 

The existence of racially polarized voting is a troubling trend that should, at minimum, give 

pause to any effort to not renew the temporary provisions of the Voting Rights Act. Section 5 

provides a safeguard against vote dilution efforts that must remain in place until such a time as 

we have achieved the type of society where race is not a factor in electoral politics. The fact is, 

we are not there. 

12 NCVRA Report, p. 8. 13 Nina Perales, Luis Figueroa, and Criselda G. Rivas, “The Minority Voting Experience in Texas since 1982:

Demonstrating the Importance of Reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act,” published by the Mexican American 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund, found at http://www.maldef.org/publications/pdf/Texas_VRA_Report.pdf. 14 Testimony of Richard Engstrom, professor of political science, University of New Orleans, in NCVRA Report, pp.

89–90. 

15 NCVRA Report, pp. 92–97. 
96 Dissent

Section 2 vs. Section 5 

Some critics of extension point to the existence of Section 2 enforcement as an available remedy 

to Voting Rights Act violations. One hundred and seventeen successful suits were brought 

between 1982 and the present, with judicial findings of discrimination against minorities by 

whites. The Voting Rights Initiative at the Michigan Law School compiled data showing that 

successful Section 2 suits have been brought as recently as 2004.16

Other data, not relying on published decisions, shows an even greater number of favorable 

outcomes under Section 2. Such data shows that over 600 Section 2 lawsuits were favorably 

resolved in Section 5 covered jurisdictions.17

However, it should be noted that Section 2 suits can be brought on the basis of results alone, not 

having to rely on an intent standard (pre- or post-Bossier II). The fact is, the resources needed to 

challenge under Section 5 are more properly assessed to an entity with the resources to cover all 

Section 5 jurisdictions—the federal government. Coupled with the sheer number of towns, cities, 

and counties covered by Section 5, there are simply not enough third-party resources, as some

critics suggest, to be able to cover the possible challenges in this country. 

Rather than undercutting Section 5, the volume of successful Section 2 suits is unfortunate but 

definitive proof that voter discrimination and vote dilution still exists. Because of this, the 

inescapable conclusion is that this nation, despite the passage of 40 years, still needs the 

temporary provisions contained in Section 5. 

The Language Assistance Provisions 

Similar to Section 5, the Commission Report provides only a cursory overview of the provisions 

of the law and data associated with it. It does not offer any recommendation regarding 

reauthorization, even though, by many commentators, there is little objection to its renewal. The 

growth in America of minorities from Asia and Spanish-speaking countries through immigration 

requires renewal to ensure full participation of these communities. 

It must be reiterated, however, that criticisms regarding cost are vastly overstated and usually 

advanced by opponents of language assistance. A recent study has stated: 

Some critics have opposed Section 203 because they believe it imposes high costs on 

local election officials. Their fears have not materialized. The costs of compliance are 

modest if there are any costs at all. Of the 154 jurisdictions reporting oral language 

assistance expenses, 59.1 percent (91 jurisdictions) incur no extra costs. Similarly, 18 of 

the 144 jurisdictions reporting written language material expenses, 54.2 percent (78 

jurisdictions) do not incur any additional costs. Nineteen of the 158 jurisdictions 

16 Ellen Katz et al., Documenting Discrimination: Judicial Findings Under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act Since 

1982, Final Report of the Voting Rights Initiative, University of Michigan Law School (Dec. 2005). 

17 NCVRA Report, pp. 84-88. 
Dissent 97

reporting complete election expenses, 39.5 percent (60 jurisdictions) do not incur any

added costs for either oral or written language assistance. 

Of the 154 jurisdictions reporting complete data for oral language assistance, the average 

cost is 4.9 percent of all election expenses. However, the top 10 percent of respondents 

(16 jurisdictions) skew this result by reporting average costs of 34 percent. By contrast, 

the remaining 138 jurisdictions report average costs of only 1.5 percent. Two factors 

contribute to the disparate results. Some of the 16 jurisdictions attribute all of their 

election expenses, including costs for hiring permanent staff and Election Day poll 

workers who have to be hired regardless of Section 203, to oral language assistance. 

Furthermore, these 16 jurisdictions are less populated, with an average total population of 

40,262 compared to an average total population of 170,439 in the remaining jurisdictions. 

When these factors are taken into consideration, our study reveals oral language costs 

close to the average of 2.9 percent originally reported by the GAO in 1984. The average 

cost of oral language assistances remains approximately the same, regardless of 

the percentage of voters who need language assistance.... 

A similar pattern emerges for the cost of written language materials. Of the 144 

jurisdictions reporting complete data for written materials, the average cost is 8.1 percent. 

Again, the top 10 percent of all respondents skewed the results, with 15 jurisdictions 

reporting average written costs of 51.8 percent. The remaining 129 jurisdictions report 

average written costs of only 3.0 percent. These disparate results occur for the same 

reasons as those reported for oral language assistance. The fifteen outlying jurisdictions 

have an average total population of 35,664 compared to an average total population of 

180,529 for the other 129 jurisdictions. All of the outliers also attribute most—and in a 

few cases all—of their total written costs to bilingual election materials. When these 

factors are taken into consideration, the average cost of providing written language 

materials is substantially below the 7.6 percent reported by the GAO in 1984. 

Even where some costs are incurred, most jurisdictions report that they are negligible 

because they, the jurisdictions, target language assistance to only those areas that require 

it.18

Overall, Data Deficiency Renders Report Irrelevant 

Unfortunately, the lack of data hampers even a critical analysis of the Commission Report. For 

example, the report seems to favor liberalized “bailout” procedures for Section 5. The rationale 

seems to be predicated on the fact that many covered jurisdictions have had no objections since 

1982. However, as noted above, the absence of objections does not incorporate or cover data 

involving withdrawals or litigation for these jurisdictions. The Commission Report even admits 

that they are “beyond the scope of this study.” This frank admission undermines sweeping 

conclusions regarding jurisdictions where the full range of data is not present. 

18 Dr. James T. Tucker testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary 

Subcommittee on the Constitution , Oversight Hearing on the Voting Rights Act: Section 203, Bilingual Election 

Requirements, Part II, November 9, 2005. 
98 Dissent

The lack of data is even more evident when compared with the 1982 report by the Commission.19

In that report the Commission conducted numerous field interviews with electoral, elected, and 

community officials; it sent out data requests that delved into the issues of registration and 

examples of harassment and intimidation; voting, including issues of assistance, intimidation, 

and vote-buying; and analysis of electoral systems, rules and other means of affecting minority 

representation in elected office. By thoroughly documenting the “variety of problems” that 

minorities continued to face, the Commission was able to urge for an extension of the temporary 

provisions of the Voting Rights Act and make recommendations for corrective action. 

Lack of Resources as Affecting Report 

While I object to the overbroad statements and perceived anti-extension bias20 contained in the 

report, the paucity of data is not the fault of the majority nor the staff director. The fact is that the 

chronic shortage of resources of this Commission is, in part, responsible for the fact-scarce 

nature of this Commission Report. If Congress and the Executive expect the Commission to 

provide them with the type of fact-intensive analysis that this Commission has performed for the 

majority of its lifespan, then it must provide the necessary resources. Neither can nor should 

complain about the utility of a report conducted under such spartan circumstances. 

Conclusion 

Far from being an objective, neutral, and fact-intensive report, the Commission Report is a 

reflection of low resources, little time, and bias against extension of the temporary provisions of

the Voting Rights Act. 

There is irrefutable data that discrimination continues throughout this country, including 

Section 5 jurisdictions. There is also data that suggests that the post-Bossier II retrogression 

standard has chilled the ability of the Department of Justice to successfully interpose Section 5 

objections. Because discrimination continues, and because this nation has made a commitment to 

utilize its laws and resources to eradicate discrimination and its pernicious effects, the Congress 

should, as they did with Section 2 in 1982, make findings and amend Section 5 to repeal 

19 U.S. CCR, The Voting Rights Act: Unfulfilled Goals (1981). 

20 The report is rife with this bias. On page 3, the report states “Congress could change its coverage formula, amend 

bailout restrictions, or shorten future extension periods.” No other suggestions to Congress appear. On page 13 the 

report states that there is a “concern about Section 5’s encroachment on state authority.” This is an argument or 

“concern” raised by opponents of Section 5. On page 29 footnote 104 and page 34 my colleague Commissioner 

Thernstrom’s works are quoted at length to defend annexations and boundary changes as evidence that annexations 

“nearly always occur for economic, political, urban development and other nondiscriminatory reasons.” Mere 

citation to text pages of Commissioner Thernstrom’s work is not enough factual support for such a statement in a 

report of this importance. Further, the report is footnoted with testimony from Edward Blum and Roger Clegg, both 

of whom testified before this Commission and both of whom do not believe in the further utility of Section 5.

Finally, the report simply glosses over the impact of the Supreme Court’s retrogression standard enunciated in

Bossier II, which is one of the core goals for amending Section 5 by civil rights organizations. 
Dissent 99

Bossier II and allow for renewed enforcement of Section 5 utilizing the intent, and not 

retrogressive, standard. 

The factual predicate for all the temporary provisions of the Voting Rights Act is the continued 

existence of discrimination against minorities with respect to the franchise. Newer communities, 

such as Latinos or Asian Americans, are encountering the same types of discrimination faced by 

African Americans (and continuing to this date) 40 years ago. Language assistance, the need for 

observers, and a strong and revitalized Section 5 will continue providing the federal government 

with the legal and enforcement tools it requires to continue the mission that began over 40 years 

ago. 

While we can justly celebrate the successes of the Voting Rights Act, much remains to be done. 

In the last year, the civil rights community lost such living legends as Arthur Fletcher, the former 

Chair of this Commission and the architect of the “Philadelphia Plan” for minority businesses; 

Judge Constance Baker Motley, a member of the Brown legal team and the first African 

American woman appointed to the federal judiciary; C. Delores Tucker, the founder of the 

National Congress of Black Women; Anne Braden, who was an early confidante and supporter 

of the Civil Rights Movement; and, of course, Rosa Parks, who lit the spark in Montgomery in 

1955. And, just a few months ago, we lost the great and courageous Coretta Scott King. It is, 

perhaps, fitting to close with and remember the words spoken by her husband in front of the 

Lincoln Memorial on a warm summer day in 1963. In particular, I think of a passage that 

answers the question posed by critics of extending the temporary provisions of the Voting Rights 

Act: 

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be 

satisfied?” ... We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote 

and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are 

not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like waters, and 

righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Dissent Appendix A 

DISSENT FIGURE D-1 

Comparison of Three Measures of Federal VRA-Related Activities in All States (1966–2004) 

Caption: In the review period, the three indicators, “objections only,” “sum of three variables,” and “sum of five

variables,” showed a similar trend through the period 1996–2000. Specifically, with the exception of one time period, the 

three indicators evidenced steady upward growth, peaking in 1991–1995, and decreasing sharply in 1996-2000. Thereafter, 

“objections only” continued to decrease, though more gradually, while the other two indicators increased slightly. 

Source: The National Commission on the Voting Rights Act, Protecting Minority Voters: The Voting Rights Act at Work 

1982–2005, February 2006, figure 1.
102 Dissent Appendix A 

DISSENT FIGURE D-2 

VRA-Related Activities (Including Enforcement Actions from 1966 to 2004) 

Caption: The numbers of “declaratory judgments” and “Section 5 and language assistance,” two of five indicators of 

VRA-related activities, are very small, annually generally less than five and ten, respectively.

The numbers of “withdrawals” are larger, especially from 1991 to 1994, ranging from approximately 15 to 25, and reaching 

30 in 2002. 

The numbers of “objections” are considerably larger than these three indicators. Objections are higher in the period 1966 

to 1982 than in the later years, even though the highest incidences occurred in the first half of the 1990s, approximately 65 

to 78 annually. 

Like “objections,” the numbers of “observer coverages” are much larger than the first three indicators. Higher annual 

numbers occurred in 1966–1968, 1983–1985, and 1996, ranging from approximately 45 to 70. 

Source: The National Commission on the Voting Rights Act, Protecting Minority Voters: The Voting Rights Act at Work 1982–2005, 

February 2006, figure 2.
Dissent Appendix B 

DISSENT TABLE D-1 

Racial Composition of Districtsa Represented by Black Elected Officials, 2000 

Composition of District Voting Age Population 

Type of Office Majority-Whiteb 

(Number) Percent 

Majority-Minorityb 

(Number) Percent 

Total 

(Number) Percent 

U.S. Representative (3) 8 (35) 92 (38 ) 100 

State Senator (19) 16 (101) 84 (120) 100 

State Representative (65) 18 (297) 82 (362) 100 

Caption: In 2000, districts with majority-minority voting age population are far more likely to be represented by Black 

elected officials than those that are majority-white. This holds true for state senator and state representative offices, and 

even more so for U.S. representative offices. a

Demographic data for this row are based only on those 40 states that submitted some or all of their 2000 demographic data to the U.S.

Bureau of the Census, plus Texas, whose data were obtained from its state’s Web site. Congressional data are for all 50 states. b

“White” is non-Hispanic white; “minority” is the remaining population in the district, including blacks. 

Sources: The National Commission on the Voting Rights Act, Protecting Minority Voters: The Voting Rights Act at Work 1982–2005, 

February 2006, table 2, citing Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies (Washington, DC), unpublished data; individual state Web 

sites; Census 2000 American FactFinder at (http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=3n; U.S Bureau of the Census, 1992 

Census of Governments, vol. 1, no. 2, “Popularly Elected Officials,” GC92 (1)-2, 1995; David A. Bositis, Black Elected Officials: A Statistical 

Summary 2000 (Washington, DC: Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, 2002), 22. 

DISSENT TABLE D-2 

Racial Composition of Districtsa

 Represented by Hispanic Elected Officials, 2000 

Composition of District Voting Age Population 

Type of Office 

Majority-Whiteb

(Number) Percent 

Majority-Minorityb

(Number) Percent 

Total 

(Number) Percent 

U.S. Representative (0) 0 (19) 100 (19) 100 

State Senator (12) 32 (26) 68 (38) 100 

State Representative (29) 26 (82) 74 (111) 100 

Caption In 2000, districts with majority-minority voting age population are far more likely to be represented by Hispanic 

elected officials than those that are majority-white. This holds true for state senator and state representative offices, and 

especially for U.S. representative offices. a

Demographic data for this row are based only on those 40 states that submitted some or all of their 2000 demographic data to the U.S.

Bureau of the Census, plus Texas, whose data were obtained from its state’s Web site. Congressional data are for all 50 states. b

“White” is non-Hispanic white; “minority” is the remaining population in the district, including blacks. 

Sources: The National Commission on the Voting Rights Act, Protecting Minority Voters: The Voting Rights Act at Work 1982–2005, 

February 2006, table 3, citing National Association of Latino Elected Officials (Los Angeles), unpublished data; individual state Web sites; 

U.S. Bureau of the Census, through Census 2000 American FactFinder (http://factfinder.census.gov/home/ saff/main.html?_lang=3n ).
104 Dissent Appendix B

 DISSENT TABLE D-3 

 Successful Section 5 Enforcement Actions, Nine States 

 (June 29, 1982 to December 31, 2004) 

State Successful Section 5 Cases (Number) 

Texas 29

Alabama 22

Georgia 17

Mississippi 15

South Carolina 10 

Louisiana 5

North Carolina 3 

Arizona 3

Virginia 1

Total 105

Caption: In 2004, from the end of June to the end of December, there 

were 105 successful Section 5 cases. 

Source: The National Commission on the Voting Rights Act, Protecting Minority 

Voters: The Voting Rights Act at Work 1982–2005, February 2006, table 4.
Dissent Appendix B 105

DISSENT MAP 1 

Section 4(b) Covered Jurisdictions 

Caption: Currently, nine states are fully covered under Section 4 (b). Of these, six—Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, 

Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia— were covered since 1965 and three— Alaska, Arizona, and Texas— since 1975. 

Various counties or townships in California, Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, and South 

Dakota are also covered. 

Source: The National Commission on the Voting Rights Act, Protecting Minority Voters: The Voting Rights Act at Work 1982–2005, 

February 2006, map 1.
106 Dissent Appendix B

DISSENT MAP 2 

Jurisdictions Covered by Section 4(f)(4) of the Voting Rights Act, by State 

Caption: Currently, three states, Alaska, Arizona, and Texas, are fully covered under Section 4(f)(4). Six states, California, 

Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, New York, and South Dakota, are partially covered. 

Source: The National Commission on the Voting Rights Act, Protecting Minority Voters: The Voting Rights Act at Work 1982–2005, 

February 2006, map 2.
Dissent Appendix B 107

DISSENT MAP 3 

Counties and States Covered by Section 203 

Caption: The states of California, New Mexico, and Texas are covered under Section 203 for the Spanish language. Also 

covered are jurisdictions in 26 other states for 29 languages. 

Source: The National Commission on the Voting Rights Act, Protecting Minority Voters: The Voting Rights Act at Work 1982–2005, 

February 2006, map 3.
108 Dissent Appendix B