Chapter 1 by the United States Congress when it passed legislation to eradicate some of the worst voting irregularities in United States history: the widespread practice by Southern election officials of using and misusing voting procedures to deny voting rights to African Americans. The announced and official resistance to African-American voting that was the highlight of Southern voter registration practices and voting procedures is a thing of the past, as are most of the voting irregularities that were spawned by that resistance.16 The surprising thing is that those irregularities have been prevented from recurring by a law that shifted the burden of proof: it makes jurisdictions prove that their new voting practices or procedures are not racially discriminatory. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was drafted to address both generalized and particular actions by which white people kept African Americans from registering to vote, and from voting, in the American South.17 For example, voter registrars (who were county officials) ruled that well-educated African Americans had failed state literacy tests because the period after their middle initial was indistinct. States required that two registered voters in the precinct must vouch for an applicant’s good moral character; all of the registered voters were white, and white people would not vouch for the character of African-American applicants. And if African Americans could get registered to vote, they faced harassment at the polls.18 Lawsuits were brought to enjoin these and other official impediments to African-American voting. But when the plaintiffs won their lawsuit, the county officials would simply adopt a different tactic for keeping African Americans off of the voting rolls, or the state would change the voter registration requirements to adopt a different, but equally effective rule that, when applied, kept African Americans off the rolls. Accordingly, the Voting Rights Act contains several sections that are called “special” provisions because they: • • Apply only to the parts of the country where Congress determined these racially discriminatory tactics existed (this is called “special coverage”), and Empower the federal government to administratively interrupt the racially discriminatory tactics that were used. For example, the original wording of Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act allowed federal employees to conduct voter registration in specially covered jurisdictions (states or counties) where the U.S. Attorney General determined that the county registrars had unfairly kept African Americans off of the voting rolls (Section 4, 42 U.S.C. § 1973b). The Voting Rights Act continues to allow federal observers to be assigned to monitor polling places during elections (Section 8, 42 U.S.C. § 1973f ).19 Some people believe that racial discrimination in voting practices does not happen any more—that we took care of it years ago. In fact, racial discrimination still occurs in voting, and not just in the Southern United States but all over the country, as is demonstrated by the continuing trail of victories won in court by individuals, organizations and the United States Department of Justice. Information about these cases is available on the web sites of organizations such as the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (www.lawyerscomm. org), the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (www.naacpldf.org), the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (www.maldef.org), the American Civil Liberties Union (www.aclu.org/voting rights/minority) and the United States Department of Justice (www.doj.gov/crt/voting). See also, Barry H. Weinberg and Lyn Utrecht, Problems in America’s Polling Places: How They Can Be Stopped, 11 Temp. Pol. & Civ. Rts. L. Rev., 401, 408-424 (2002). 17 In addition to addressing known discriminatory practices, the law also included a formula for determining if a state or county should be specially covered under the act: if the state or county maintained a test or device, such as a literacy test, and less than 50% of persons of voting age were registered to vote or had voted in the 1964 Presidential election. The base year was updated in subsequent amendments. 18 Harassment included making African American voters stand aside until white voters cast their ballots, calling African American voters by their first names but addressing white people as Mr. or Mrs., telling African American voters that their names were not on the voter rolls even though they were, and threatening African Americans with later reprisals for voting. 19 Specially covered jurisdictions may terminate their special coverage by proving that they do not discriminate and have complied with the Voting Rights Act. 42 U.S.C. § 1973b(a). For the author’s more complete discussion of the history of the Voting Rights Act and its special provisions, the kinds of actions that have been used to discriminate against minority group members in voting, and especially the use of federal observers in monitoring polling places, see Barry H. Weinberg and Lyn Utrecht, Problems in America’s Polling Places: How They Can Be Stopped, 11 Temp. Pol. & Civ. Rts. L. Rev., 401, 403-424 (2002). 16 15