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Volume 2 Number 2 JUSTICE DEPARTMENT REVERSES ITSELF ON VOTING RIGHTS
On January 6, 1987 the Department of Justice issued final regulations for the enforcement of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act that authorize the rejection of proposed voting changes that would "result" in discrimination. The policy set forth in the final regulations is a reversal of the position expressed by Assistant Attorney General William Bradford Reynolds in a speech to the American Political Science Forum on August 29, 1986 in which he stated the Department would no longer object to some voting changes that have a discriminatory result (See CIVIL RIGHTS MONITOR, October 1986).
The Section 5 Standard
Under the Voting Rights Act, jurisdictions that are covered by Section 5 (those with a history of low registration and voting) must submit all proposed electoral changes to the Department, which is required to veto any that are discriminatory. The position expressed by Reynolds in August meant that the Department, in reviewing Section 5 changes, would allow a voting change that has a discriminatory result on minority voters if it replaced a similarly discriminatory practice and the extent of the discrimination remained the same or decreased somewhat. This is contrary to directions given by Congress in amending the Voting Rights Act in 1982. In the 1982 amendments, Congress made clear that a "results standard" was to be used in judging proposed election changes under Section 5 as well as other types of electoral practices covered by Section 2 of the law. This is the standard incorporated in the final regulations. Application of this standard will cause the Justice Department to object to a proposed voting change that provides minority voters with less opportunity then other members of the electorate to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice. A proposed change will succeed or fail on its own, not through a comparison with the practice it would replace.
  
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