Speech #890083553

H.R. 6400 contains an "automatic trigger" which arbitrarily assumes that any State or political subdivision where (a) less than 50 percent of the voting age population failed to vote in the 1964 elections and (b) a test or other device is maintained as a prerequisite to voting registration. is automatically guilty of violating the act. This provision Is both arbitrary and discriminatory. It suspends literacy tests in the affected areas leaving them In effect elsewhere. It Ignores completely the fact that voter discrimination can exist in areas which do not fall under its narrow definition. The FordMcCulloch bills provide for invocation of the act when 25 meritorious complaints of racial discrimination from a voting district are lodged with a Federal court. This provision provides for relief against discrimination in all 50 States rather than in the mere handful that come under the definition of H.R. 6400. While the administration bill eliminates all tests and devices designed to prove quall-. fication to vote. leaving to the Attorney General the designation of what qualifications are to be substituted. the FordMcCulloch bills (a) permit valid literacy tests. administered by a Federal examiner. for applicants not possessing at least a sixthgrade education and (b) ban them for all other applicants. The administration bill permits Federal election observers to be sent into voting districts at the request of the Attorney General. The FordMcCulloch bills adopt the wiser tactic of permitting the U.S.