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Voting Rights Act of 1965
89th United States Congress
Long title:	—
Introduced by:	—
Dates
Date passed:	August 3, 1965 (House) August 4, 1965 (Senate) July 13, 2006 (House) Renewed July 20, 2006 (Senate) Renewed
Date signed into law:	August 6, 1965
Amendments:	1970, 1975, 1982, 2006
Related legislation:	—

The National Voting Rights Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. § 1973–1973aa-6)^[1] outlawed the requirement that would-be voters in the United States take literacy tests to qualify to register to vote, and it provided for federal registration of voters in areas that had less than 50% of eligible minority voters registered. The Act also provided for Department of Justice oversight to registration, and the Department's approval for any change in voting law in districts that had used a "device" to limit voting and in which less than 50% of the population was registered to vote in 1964. It was signed in 1965, and signed for a 25 year extension by President George W. Bush on July 27, 2006.

While the Act is often considered a landmark in civil rights legislation, it has been criticized by some (especially during talks of renewal in 2006) as a bill that has achieved its goal of minority voting and now has become an overreach of federal power or too demanding of certain states.^[2]

Contents 1 Background 2 Legislative history 2.1 Vote count 3 Periodic renewal 4 Criticisms 4.1 Pre-clearance 4.2 Multilingual balloting 4.3 Gerrymandering 5 Section 2 6 Preclearance 6.1 States 6.2 Counties 6.3 Towns 7 Bail out 8 No affirmative right to vote 9 References 10 External links

Further information: Disfranchisement after the Civil War

The Thirteenth Amendment ratified in 1865 after the United States Civil War, abolished and prohibited slavery and secured a minimal degree of citizenship to former slaves. The Fourteenth Amendment ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to all people “born or naturalized in the United States,” and includes the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. This amendment failed to explicitly prohibit vote discrimination on racial grounds.

The prohibition of voting rights discrimination on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of slavery was first codified by the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1870. Soon after the failure of Reconstruction, southern states found other means besides those enumerated in the Fifteenth Amendment to deny the vote to blacks, through violence, intimidation, via Jim Crow laws that included literacy tests, poll taxes, and also grandfather clauses that permitted otherwise disqualified voters whose grandfathers voted (thus allowing some white illiterates to vote), some with the aim and effect of re-imposing racially motivated restrictions on the voting process that prevented blacks from having political and economic power. Although the Fifteenth Amendment established particular voting rights, and gave Congress the authority to enforce those rights and regulate the voting process, the vote was still allowed to be withheld from most southern blacks and from non-white minorities throughout the U.S., from the post-Reconstruction era through the 1960s.

In 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was created with the mission to promote blacks' civil rights, including to "secure for them impartial suffrage." The NAACP's success was limited: despite some important judicial and legislative successes, many southern blacks remained disenfranchised through the early 1960s. Following the 1964 election, a variety of civil rights organizations banded together to push for the passage of legislation that would ensure black voting rights once and for all. The campaign to bring about federal intervention to prevent discrimination in voting culminated in the voting rights protests in Selma, Alabama, and the famous Selma to Montgomery marches, and also sadly in the separate murders of Jimmie Lee Jackson, James Reeb, and Viola Liuzzo, after which President Lyndon Baines Johnson, in a dramatic joint-session address, called upon Congress to enact a strong voting rights bill. Johnson's administration drafted a bill intended to enforce the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, aiming to eliminate various previously legal strategies to prevent blacks and other minorities from voting.

The Act was sent to Congress by President Lyndon Johnson on March 17, 1965. The Senate passed the bill on May 11 (after a successful cloture vote on March 23); the House passed it on July 10. After differences between the two bills were resolved in conference, the House passed the Conference Report on August 3, the Senate on August 4. President Johnson signed the Act on August 6, 1965.

The two numbers in each line of this list refer to the number of representatives voting in favor and against the act, respectively.

Senate: 77–19

• Democrats: 47–17
• Republicans: 30–2

House: 333–85

• Democrats: 221–61
• Republicans: 112–24

Conference Report:

Senate: 79–18

• Democrats: 49–17
• Republicans: 30–1

House: 328–74

• Democrats: 217–54
• Republicans: 111–20

Some votes were not included due to some members' absence.

Some temporary amendments of the Voting Rights Act (none involving the outlawing of poll taxes or literacy tests, on which the ban is permanent)^[3] have been renewed four times and remain in force. They were renewed in 1970, 1975, 1982, and 2006. In the 1982 action, Congress amended the Act to make some sections (perhaps most importantly section 2) permanent while renewing the remainder (perhaps most importantly section 5) for 25 years, until (July 1, 2007).

In July 2006, 41 years after the Voting Rights Act passed, renewal of the temporary provisions enjoyed bi-partisan support. However, a number of Republican lawmakers acted to amend, delay or defeat renewal of the Act for various reasons. One group of lawmakers led by Georgia congressman Lynn Westmoreland came from some pre-clearance states, and claimed that it is no longer fair to target their states given the passage of time since 1965 and the changes that have taken place since then. Another group of 80 legislators supported an amendment offered by Steve King of Iowa, seeking to strip provisions from the Act that require that translators or multilingual ballots be provided for U.S. citizens who do not speak English.^[2] The "King letter" said that providing ballots or interpreters in multiple languages is a costly, unfunded mandate.

The bill to renew the Act was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, 390-33, with support from Republican House leadership, led by Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr.. The U.S. Senate passed the bill 98–0. ^[4]

President George W. Bush signed the bill in a morning ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House on July 27, 2006, one year in advance of the 2007 expiration date. The audience included members of the families of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and the late Mrs.Rosa Parks. Also in attendance were the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, NAACP Chairman Julian Bond and other prominent African Americans.^[4]

Some municipalities singled out in the Act for their practices from the 1960s are still required by law to receive federal permission for certain changes to election law or changes in venue.^[5] These nine Southern states and mostly Southern counties have complained that the practices banned by the Act disappeared long ago and further compliance with the mandates of the Act are a costly nuisance and an "unfair stigma" to their towns.^[2] As an example of the federal bureaucracy involved, Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston said, "If you move a polling place from the Baptist church to the Methodist church, you've got to go through the Justice Department."^[2]

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., said:

"Congress is declaring from on high that states with voting problems 40 years ago can simply never be forgiven, that Georgians must eternally wear the scarlet letter because of the actions of their grandparents and great-grandparents. ... We have repented and we have reformed."^[6]

Some who think that this federal oversight is discriminatory to these particular states have proposed that the oversight be extended to all 50 states or eliminated entirely.^[7]

The Act requires municipalities that receive requests for ballots in other languages to comply with the request. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California said of the Act, "What unites us? It's our language, the English language" and that the Act is "hurting America by making it easier not to learn English."^[6]

Some judges and proponents of racially drawn congressional districts have interpreted Section 5 of the Act as requiring racial gerrymandering in order to ensure minority representation.^[8][9]

Section 2 contains a general prohibition on voting discrimination, enforced through federal district court litigation. Congress amended this section in 1982, prohibiting any voting practice or procedure that has a discriminatory result. The 1982 amendment provided that proof of intentional discrimination is not required. The provision focused instead on whether the electoral processes is equally accessible to minority voters.^[10] This section is permanent and does not require renewal.

Section 5 of the Act requires that the United States Department of Justice "preclear" any attempt to change “any voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure with respect to voting..." in any "covered jurisdiction." The Supreme Court gave a broad interpretation to the words "any voting qualification or prerequisite to voting" in Allen v. State Board of Election, 393 U.S. 544 (1969). A covered jurisdictions that seeks to obtain Section 5 preclearance, either from the Attorney General or the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, must demonstrate that a proposed voting change does not have the purpose and will not have the effect of discriminating based on race or color. In some cases, they must also show that the proposed change does not have the purpose or effect of discriminating against a "language minority group." Membership in a language minority group includes “persons who are American Indian, Asian American, Alaskan Natives or of Spanish heritage.” The burden of proof under current Section 5 jurisprudence is on the covered jurisdiction to establish that the proposed change does not have a retrogressive purpose.^[11]

Covered jurisdictions may not implement voting changes without federal preclearance. The Justice Department has 60 days to respond to a request for a voting change. If the Justice Department or federal court rejects a request for preclearance, the jurisdiction may continue the prior voting practice or may adopt a substitute and seek preclearance for it. If the jurisdiction implements a voting change before the Justice Department denies preclearance in contravention of the Act, the jurisdiction must return to the pre-existing practice or enact a different change.

Those states which had less than 50% of the voting age population voting in 1960 and/or 1964 were originally covered. (This was when the average percentage of the voting age population participating in a presidential election was in the mid-60s instead of around 50% in 1996, 2000, and 2004.) In addition some counties and towns that have been found in violation of section 2 have since been added. Some counties in Virginia (see below) have been since found to no longer need preclearance.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights recently reviewed the Justice Department preclearance record and found that the percentage of DOJ objections to submitted changes has declined markedly over the 40-year period of the Act:

• During the three legislative periods that the Commission examined, 1965–74, 1975–82, 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.^[12]

The Commission's two Democratic members dissented from the report, charging that the Commission had "abandon[ed] the field of battle." ^[13]

The jurisdictions listed below must be precleared

• Alabama
• Alaska
• Arizona
• Georgia
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• South Carolina
• Texas
• Virginia, except for eight counties: (Augusta, Frederick, Greene, Pulaski, Roanoke, Shenandoah, and Warren) and three independent cities (Fairfax, Harrisonburg, and Winchester).

• California: Kings, Merced, Monterey, Yuba
• Florida: Collier, Hardee, Hendry, Hillsborough
• New York: Bronx, Kings, New York
• North Carolina: Anson, Beaufort, Bertie, Bladen, Camden, Caswell, Chowan, Cleveland, Craven, Cumberland, Edgecombe, Franklin, Gaston, Gates, Granville, Greene, Guilford, Halifax, Harnett, Hertford, Hoke, Jackson, Lee, Lenoir, Martin, Nash, Northampton, Onslow, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Person, Pitt, Robeson, Rockingham, Scotland, Union, Vance, Washington, Wayne, Wilson
• South Dakota: Shannon, Todd.

• Michigan: Clyde Township (Allegan County), Buena Vista Township
• New Hampshire: Rindge, Millsfield, Pinkham's Grant, Stewartstown, Stratford, Grafton County, Benton, Antrim, Boscawen, Newington, Unity

The term "bail out" refers to the process by which covered jurisdictions may seek exemption from Section 5 coverage. In order to bail out, a covered jurisdiction needs to obtain a declaratory judgment from the District Court for the District of Columbia. The 11 Virginia jurisdictions not covered by Section 5 preclearance requirements have all successfully "bailed out."

Before August 1984, this process required covered jurisdictions to demonstrate that the voting test that they used immediately before coverage was not used in a discriminatory fashion. The 1982 amendment included two significant changes. First, Congress provided that where a state is covered in its entirety, individual counties in that state may separately bail out. Second, Congress completely redesigned the bailout standard. The post-1984 bailout standard requires that a covered jurisdiction demonstrate nondiscriminatory behavior during the 10 years prior to filing and while the action is pending and that it has taken affirmative steps to improve minority voting opportunities.^[14]

While the title of the Voting Rights Act might imply that it established an explicit right to vote for U.S. citizens, there is no such federal right. However, the Voting Rights Act and three constitutional amendments that prevent discrimination in granting the franchise have established in United States Supreme Court jurisprudence that there is a "fundamental right" in the franchise, even though voting remains a state-granted privilege. However, states are given considerable leeway when it comes to this "fundamental right".

In Bush v. Gore (2000), the Supreme Court ruled that, "The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States." States do not have to extend suffrage to ex-felons [1], nor do they have to allow citizens to register and vote on the Election Day. In 2007, the Supreme Court will decide if, a "Voter ID law unfairly deters the poor and minorities from voting" [2]. While the Supreme Court has stated that the right to vote and the right to be a candidate are connected, they have often upheld state laws that make it difficult for independent and minor party candidates to be included on the election ballot or in the debates [3].

Washington, D.C., not being a state, has been granted only limited voting rights by Congress, which controls the District "in all cases whatsoever", according to the District Clause of the Constitution.^[15] U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. re-introduced House Joint Resolution 28 in March, 2005, to amend the U.S. Constitution and create a federal right to vote.^[16] The resolution had 60 co-sponsors as of October, 2006.^[17]

• "More information from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights"
• U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Voting Rights Enforcement and Reauthorization: An Examination of the Act's Section 5 Preclearance Provision
• 11 Worst Places to Vote an article from Mother Jones Magazine
• Justice Talking: Voting Rights Act: Past, Present, and Future

v • d • e African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968) (Timeline)
Topics and events	Albany Movement • Birmingham campaign • Black Power • Brown v. Board of Education • Civil Rights Act of 1964 • Civil Rights Act of 1968 • Freedom Riders • Freedom Summer • Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections • Little Rock Nine • March on Washington • Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party • Montgomery Bus Boycott • Poor People's Campaign • Selma to Montgomery marches • Twenty-fourth Amendment • Voting Rights Act of 1965
Activists	Ralph Abernathy • Victoria Gray Adams • Ella Baker • Stokely Carmichael • Vernon Dahmer • Annie Devine • Medgar Evers • James Farmer • James Forman • Fannie Lou Hamer • Dorothy Height • T. R. M. Howard • Jesse Jackson • Clyde Kennard • Martin Luther King, Jr. • John Lewis • Viola Liuzzo • Malcolm X • Bob Moses • Rosa Parks • A. Philip Randolph • Bayard Rustin • Modjeska Monteith Simkins • Roy Wilkins • Whitney Young
Activist groups	Congress of Racial Equality • Leadership Conference on Civil Rights • NAACP • Operation Breadbasket • SCLC • SNCC • National Council of Negro Women • National Urban League • Women's Political Council