Speech #940064283

That act was landmark. both in terms of its abandonment of the casebycase litigation approach as well as the significant improvements which it has thus far wrought. The Voting Rights Act was designed to effectuate immediate relief by means of an automatic triggering device which made the acts special remedies applicable to jurisdictions meeting the triggering criteria. After considerable study. the Congress chose as its trigger automatic coverage of those jurisdictions where the overall turnout or registration rate in the 1964 Presidential election was less than 50 percent and where literacy tests or other similar devices had been used at the time of the 1964 Presidential election. It was felt that by covering those areas. the significant "problem" spots would be identifiedessentially because discriminatory use of literacy tests was then known to be one of the primary means by which blacks were being excluded from the electoral process. As a result of the operation of the trigger. special coverage in 1965 was applicable to six Southern States and portions of another. and to a sprinkling of other counties throughout the country. Special coverage of these jurisdictions meant that they became automatically subject to a number of special requirements under the act. First. the use of literacy tests and other similar devices was automatically suspended in those areas. Second. section 5 of the act required that all voting changes made by the covered jurisdictions be subject to review by either the District Court for the District of Columbia or by the Attorney General of the United States prior to their implementation. And a third special remedy. namely.