Speech #940066061

Section 4 (a) of the current Act provides a bailout which is more apparent than real with respect to many of the covered jurisdictions. To effectively bail out of the special coverage provisions of the Act. a Jurisdiction must show that for the past 10 years (20 years as extended by H.R. 6219) It has not used a test or device with the purpose or effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color (or in contravention of the guarantees set forth in � 4 (f) (2) as added by H.R. 6219). However. recent Supreme Court cases have made this bailout almost per se impossible for states which had inferior schools for minorities and used a literacy test in the early 1960s by concluding that the effect of such literacy tests when coupled with the educational disparity automatically results in discriminatory application of such tests. This trigger mechanism is anachronistic and possibly unconstitutional in that it is not rationally related to the actual denial of minority voting rights. by focusing on literacy tests In existence prior to 1965 without taking account of present discrimination the current Act has given the covered jurisdictions no incentive to improve their voting laws. . The trigger suggested in � 3 of this substitute remedies the deficiencies of the trigger In the present Act by encouraging states to improve their voting laws so that they may bail out via a declaratory judgment and to encourage a high minority voter turnout in subsequent elections. In this manner current problems are addressed and affirmative solutions are encouraged. (B) This division amends � 5 of the Voting Rights Act effective February 6. 1977. to produce the following changes: (1) The power of the Attorney General under � 5 to preclear state voting laws is expanded to require preclearance of all existing voting laws of the jurisdiction regardless of the time they were placed on the books.