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Page Number: 18.0

14 

SHELBY COUNTY v. HOLDER 

Opinion of the Court 

registration rates now approach parity.  Blatantly discrim-
inatory evasions of federal decrees are rare.  And minority
candidates hold office at unprecedented levels.”  Northwest 
Austin,  557  U. S.,  at  202.    The  tests  and  devices  that 
blocked  access  to  the  ballot  have  been  forbidden  nation-
wide for over 40 years.  See §6, 84 Stat. 315; §102, 89 Stat. 
400. 

Those conclusions are not ours alone.  Congress said the
same  when  it  reauthorized  the  Act  in  2006,  writing  that
“[s]ignificant  progress  has  been  made  in  eliminating  first 
generation  barriers  experienced  by  minority  voters,  in-
cluding  increased  numbers  of  registered  minority  voters,
minority  voter  turnout,  and  minority  representation  in 
Congress,  State  legislatures,  and  local  elected  offices.”
§2(b)(1), 120 Stat. 577.  The House Report elaborated that
“the number of African-Americans who are registered and
who  turn  out  to  cast  ballots  has  increased  significantly 
over the last 40 years, particularly since 1982,” and noted 
that  “[i]n  some  circumstances,  minorities  register  to  vote
and  cast  ballots  at  levels  that  surpass  those  of  white  vot-
ers.”  H. R.  Rep.  No.  109–478,  p. 12  (2006).    That  Report
also explained that there have been “significant increases 
in  the  number  of  African-Americans  serving  in  elected 
offices”;  more  specifically,  there  has  been  approximately 
a  1,000  percent  increase  since  1965  in  the  number  of
African-American  elected  officials  in  the  six  States  origi-
nally covered by the Voting Rights Act.  Id., at 18. 

The  following  chart,  compiled  from  the  Senate  and 
House Reports, compares voter registration numbers from
1965  to  those  from  2004  in  the  six  originally  covered 
States.  These are the numbers that were before Congress
when it reauthorized the Act in 2006: