Fulton (4 voting age nonwhites) Lee Madison (7 voting age nonwhites) Polk (8 voting age nonwhites) Search (1 voting age nonwhite) FLORIDA Since Florida has no literacy test it would not be covered under H.R. 6400. In the following counties less than 50 percent of the voting age population voted at the last election: DeSoto Gadsden Hillsborough Union The following counties would be included under the 25 percent racial registration standard of S. 1517: Gadsden Jefferson Lafayette TENNESSEE Union Since Tennessee has no literacy test it would not be covered under H.R. 6400. In the following counties less than 50 percent of the voting age population voted at the last election: Since racial registration statistics are not presently available we do not know how many counties would be included under the 25 percent standard of S. 1517. The Department of Justice has obtained decrees to prevent discrimination or intimidation in connection with voting in Fayette and Haywood Counties. The Commission has no evidence of any problem in the remaining counties. CONCLUSION It is evident that H.R. 6400 covers most of the areas in which we have found discrimination. It may be that certain limited problem areas would not be covered. If it appears desirable to enlarge the reach of H.R. 6400, we would suggest the following procedure: Whenever a specified number of meritorious voting complaints from any county are filed with this Commission, it would request a census of voting and registration by race, pursuant to the authority granted by Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Federal examiners would be appointed whenever less than 25 percent of voters of the same race as the complainants were registered or had voted. COMMENT ON CONSTITUTIONALITY OF H.R. 6400 Some critics of H.R. 6400 have questioned the constitutionality of the measure. The Commission staff has previously prepared memoranda upon the constitutionality of proposals to eliminate literacy tests and to establish Federal supervision of voter registration in places where there is discrimination in registration. We believe the present bill is constitutional. The formula adopted relates directly to the areas where the Commission has previously found discrimination to exist. To buttress this point, however, we believe there should be either a legislative finding to this effect or a clear legislative record, including findings in the Committee report, showing that the States covered by the formula are, in fact, the States in which discrimination exists. Low VOTER TURNOUT AREAS The table (p. 277) shows the States and counties of the United States where less than 50 percent of the voting age population cast ballots for President in 1964, or where the figure was only slightly over 50 percent. Under proposed voting rights legislation, it would be possible to appoint Federal examiners to register voters if (a) the Attorney General certified that an area was using literacy tests or similar devices as a prerequisite for registration to vote and (b) the Director of the Census Bureau certified that less than 50 percent of the voting age persons in such a State or subdivision of a State voted in the 1964 presidential election. Note, however, that this provision would apply only in those States with literacy tests. Such States are marked with (1) below. States without literacy tests would not be covered by this portion of the proposed 1964 act. Several States with low voter turnouts but no literacy tests are included in the table, however, and are marked by (2). The 50-percent "trigger" mechanism of the bill could apply either to entire literacy test States or to subdivisions (counties or cities) thereof. If an entire State were under 50 percent, then every county. and any city within it would be covered, even if some areas in the State were individually over 50 percent. This criterion would apply, based on the 1964 statistics, to Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Virginia. For those States, the listing below includes only selected counties, since the entire State would be covered. For States where the statewide voting figure was over 50 percent, but individual areas less than 50 percent, every county under 50 percent is listed. (See note below.) Statewide percentages of voter participatation are computed on final, official presidential election returns for all parties, compared to the Census Bureau's estimate, as of November 1, 1964, of the number of persons of voting age in each State. (Voting age is 21 in all States except Georgia and Kentucky, where it is 18, Alaska, where it is 19, and Hawaii, where it is 20.) The Census Bureau's gross population figures include all residents of voting age, even aliens, military personnel, the mentally incompetent and new residents not yet eligible to vote. High military personnel populations, for instance, are thought to be largely responsible for low voter turnouts (in percentage terms) in Alaska and Hawaii. Individual county or city voting age population figures were last computed in the 1960 census and are used below in computing percentages below the statewide level. NOTE. There are 12 States which have literacy tests but no counties with less than 50-percent participation in the 1964 presidential election. Those States, with the statewide participation figure: California 64.7; Connecticut 71.8; Delaware 71.1; Hawaii 52.5; Idaho 75.8; Massachusetts 71.3; New Hampshire 73.2; New York 63.2; Oregon 69.9; Pennsylvania 68.1; Washington 71.5; Wyoming 73.2. |