§ 51.5 Termination of coverage (bailout).

A covered jurisdiction or a political subdivision of a covered State may terminate the application of section 5 (or bail out) by obtaining the declaratory judgment described in section 4(a) of the Act.

$51.6 Political subunits.

All political subunits within a covered jurisdiction (e.g., counties, cities, school districts) are subject to the requirement of section 5.

851.7 Political parties.

Certain activities of political parties are subject to the preclearance requirement of section 5. A change affecting voting effected by a political party is subject to the preclearance requirement:

(a) If the change relates to a public electoral function of the party and

(b) If the party is acting under authority explicitly or implicitly granted by a covered jurisdiction or political subunit subject to the preclearance requirement of section 5.

For example, changes with respect to the recruitment of party members, the conduct of political campaigns, and the drafting of party platforms are not subject to the preclearance requirement. Changes with respect to the conduct of primary elections at which party nominees, delegates to party conventions, or party officials are chosen are subject to the preclearance requirement of section 5. Where appropriate the term "jurisdiction" (but not "covered jurisdiction") includes political parties.

$51.8 Section 3 coverage.

Under section 3(c) of the Act, a court in voting rights litigation can order as relief that a jurisdiction not subject to the preclearance requirement of section 5 preclear its voting changes by submitting them either to the court or to the Attorney General. Where a jurisdiction is required under section 3(c) to preclear its voting changes, and it elects to submit the proposed changes to the Attorney General for preclearance, the procedures in this part will apply.

$51.9 Computation of time.

(a) The Attorney General shall have 60 days in which to interpose an objection to a submitted change affecting voting.

(b) Except as specified in §§51.37, 51.39, and 51.42 the 60-day period shall commence upon receipt by the Department of Justice of a submission.

(c) The 60-day period shall mean 60 calendar days, with the day of receipt of the submission not counted. If the final day of the period should fall on a Saturday, Sunday, any day designated as a holiday by the President or Congress of the United States, or any other day that is not a day of regular business for the Department of Justice, the Attorney General shall have until the close of the next full business day in which to interpose an objection. The date of the Attorney General's response shall be the date on which it is mailed to the submitting authority.

$51.10 Requirement of action for declaratory judgment or submission to the Attorney General.

Section 5 requires that, prior to enforcement of any change affecting voting, the jurisdiction that has enacted or seeks to administer the change must either:

(a) Obtain a judicial determination from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that denial or abridgment of the right to vote on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group is not the purpose and will not be the effect of the change or

(b) Make to the Attorney General a proper submission of the change to which no objection is interposed.

It is unlawful to enforce a change affecting voting without obtaining preclearance under section 5. The obligation to obtain such preclearance is not relieved by unlawful enforcement. [52 FR 490, Jan. 6, 1987; 52 FR 2648, Jan. 23, 1987]

§ 51.11 Right to bring suit.

Submission to the Attorney General does not affect the right of the submitting authority to bring an action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for a declaratory judgment

that the change affecting voting does not have the prohibited discriminatory purpose or effect.

$51.12 Scope of requirement.

Any change affecting voting, even though it appears to be minor or indirect, returns to a prior practice or procedure, ostensibly expands voting rights, or is designed to remove the elements that caused objection by the Attorney General to a prior submitted change, must meet the section 5 preclearance requirement.

851.13 Examples of changes.

Changes affecting voting include, but are not limited to, the following examples:

(a) Any change in qualifications or eligibility for voting.

(b) Any change concerning registration, balloting, and the counting of votes and any change concerning publicity for or assistance in registration or voting.

(c) Any change with respect to the use of a language other than English in any aspect of the electoral process.

(d) Any change in the boundaries of voting precincts or in the location of polling places.

(e) Any change in the constituency of an official or the boundaries of a voting unit (e.g., through redistricting, annexation, deannexation, incorporation, reapportionment, changing to at-large elections from district elections, or changing to district elections from atlarge elections).

(f) Any change in the method of determining the outcome of an election (e.g., by requiring a majority vote for election or the use of a designated post or place system).

(g) Any change affecting the eligibility of persons to become or remain candidates, to obtain a position on the ballot in primary or general elections, or to become or remain holders of elective offices.

(h) Any change in the eligibility and qualification procedures for independent candidates.

(1) Any change in the term of an elective office or an elected official or in the offices that are elective (e.g., by shortening the term of an office,

changing from election to appointment or staggering the terms of offices).

(j) Any change affecting the necessity of or methods for offering issues and propositions for approval by referendum.

(k) Any change affecting the right or ability of persons to participate in political campaigns which is effected by a jurisdiction subject to the requirement of section 5.

$51.14 Recurrent practices.

Where a jurisdiction implements a practice or procedure periodically or upon certain established contingencies, a change occurs:

(a) The first time such a practice or procedure is implemented by the jurisdiction,

(b) When the manner in which such a practice or procedure is implemented by the jurisdiction is changed, or

(c) When the rules for determining when such a practice or procedure will be implemented are changed.

The failure of the Attorney General to object to a recurrent practice or procedure constitutes preclearance of the future use of the practice or procedure if its recurrent nature is clearly stated or described in the submission or is expressly recognized in the final response of the Attorney General on the merits of the submission.

$51.15 Enabling legislation and contingent or nonuniform requirements.

(a) With respect to legislation (1) that enables or permits the State or its political subunits to institute a voting change or (2) that requires or enables the State or its political sub-units to institute a voting change upon some future event or if they satisfy certain criteria, the failure of the Attorney General to interpose an objection does not exempt from the preclearance requirement the implementation of the particular voting change that is enabled, permitted, or required, unless that implementation is explicitly included and described in the submission of such parent legislation.

(b) For example, such legislation includes

(1) Legislation authorizing counties, cities, school districts, or agencies or

officials of the State to institute any of the changes described in § 51.13,

(2) Legislation requiring a political subunit that chooses a certain form of government to follow specified election procedures,

(3) Legislation requiring or authorizing political subunits of a certain size or a certain location to institute specified changes,

(4) Legislation requiring a political subunit to follow certain practices or procedures unless the subunit's charter or ordinances specify to the contrary.

$51.16 Distinction between changes in procedure and changes in substance.

The failure of the Attorney General to interpose an objection to a procedure for instituting a change affecting voting does not exempt the substantive change from the preclearance requirement. For example, if the procedure for the approval of an annexation is changed from city council approval to approval in a referendum, the preclearance of the new procedure does not exempt an annexation accomplished under the new procedure from the preclearance requirement.

§ 51.17 Special elections.

(a) The conduct of a special election (e.g., an election to fill a vacancy; an initiative, referendum, or recall election; or a bond issue election) is subject to the preclearance requirement to the extent that the jurisdiction makes changes in the practices or procedures to be followed.

(b) Any discretionary setting of the date for a special election or scheduling of events leading up to or following a special election is subject to the preclearance requirement.

(c) A jurisdiction conducting a referendum election to ratify a change in a practice or procedure that affects voting may submit the change to be voted on at the same time that it submits any changes involved in the conduct of the referendum election. A jurisdiction wishing to

receive

preclearance for the change to be ratified should state clearly that such preclearance is being requested. See § 51.22 of this part.

851.18 Court-ordered changes.

(a) In general. Changes affecting voting that are ordered by a Federal court are subject to the preclearance requirement of section 5 to the extent that they reflect the policy choices of the submitting authority.

a

(b) Subsequent changes. Where court-ordered change is not itself subject to the preclearance requirement, subsequent changes necessitated by the court order but decided upon by the jurisdiction remain subject to preclearance. For example, voting precinct and polling place changes made necessary by a court-ordered redistricting plan are subject to section 5 review. (c) In emergencies. A Federal court's authorization of the emergency interim use without preclearance of a voting change does not exempt from section 5 review any use of the practice not explicitly authorized by the court. $51.19 Request for notification concerning voting litigation. A jurisdiction subject to the preclearance requirement of section 5 that becomes involved in any litigation concerning voting is requested promptly to notify the Chief, Voting Section, Civil Rights Division, Department of Justice, P.O. Box 66128, Washington, DC 20035-6128. Such notification will not be considered a submission under section 5.

[52 FR 490, Jan. 6, 1987, as amended by Order 1214-87, 52 FR 33409, Sept. 3, 1987]

Subpart B-Procedures for Submission to the Attorney General

$51.20 Form of submissions.

(a) Submissions may be made in letter or any other written form.

(b) The Attorney General will accept certain machine readable data in the following forms of magnetic media: 31⁄2" 1.4 megabyte MS-DOS formatted diskettes; 54" 1.2 megabyte MS-DOS formatted floppy disks; nine-track tape (1600/6250 BPI). Unless requested by the Attorney General, data provided on magnetic media need not be provided in hard copy.

(c) All magnetic media shall be clearly labelled with the following information:

(1) Submitting authority.

(2) Name, address, title, and telephone number of contact person.

(3) Date of submission cover letter. (4) Statement identifying the voting change(s) involved in the submission. The label shall be affixed to each magnetic medium, and the information inIcluded on the label shall also be contained in a documentation file on the magnetic medium. If the information identified above is provided as a disk operating system (DOS) file, it shall be formatted in a standard American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) character code, with a line feed or carriage return control character starting in position 80. If the information identified above is provided other than as DOS files, it shall be formatted as ASCII text (or Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code (EBCDIC) if IBM standard labels are used), 80 byte fixed record length, blocked in a multiple of 80 with a blocksize no larger than 32 kilobytes, and with no carriage return or line feed.

(d) Each magnetic medium (floppy disk or tape) provided must be accompanied by a printed description of its contents, including an identification by name and/or location of each data file that is contained on the medium, a detailed record layout for each such file, a record count for each such file, and a full description of the magnetic medium format.

(e) All data files shall be provided in a fixed record-length format using alphanumeric ASCII values. The first 50 records of each such file shall be printed on hard copy and shall be attached to the printed description of the file. Proprietary and/or commercial software system data files (e.g. SAS, SPSS, dBase, Lotus 1-2-3) and data files containing compressed data or binary data fields will not be accepted. Nine-track tapes shall be clearly marked with printed labels to indicate their density, and manner of labelling (ANSI, IBM, or unlabelled). The printed label shall also include the record count, the record length, the blocksize, the dataset name (DSN) if it is a labelled

tape, and the file number of each file on the tape.

[52 FR 490, Jan. 6, 1987, as amended by Order No. 1536-91, 56 FR 51836, Oct. 16, 1991]

§ 51.21 Time of submissions.

Changes affecting voting should be submitted as soon as possible after they become final.

§ 51.22 Premature submissions. The Attorney General will not consider on the merits:

(a) Any proposal for a change affecting voting submitted prior to final enactment or administrative decision or

(b) Any proposed change which has a direct bearing on another change affecting voting which has not received section 5 preclearance.

However, with respect to a change for which approval by referendum, a State or Federal court or a Federal agency is required, the Attorney General may make a determination concerning the change prior to such approval if the change is not subject to alteration in the final approving action and if all other action necessary for approval has been taken.

$51.23 Party and jurisdiction responsible for making submissions.

(a) Changes affecting voting shall be submitted by the chief legal officer or other appropriate official of the submitting authority or by any other authorized person on behalf of the submitting authority. When one or more counties or other political subunits within a State will be affected, the State may make a submission on their behalf. Where a State is covered as a whole, State legislation (except legislation of local applicability) or other changes undertaken or required by the State shall be submitted by the State.

(b) A change effected by a political party (see §51.7) may be submitted by an appropriate official of the political party.

§51.24 Address for submissions.

(a) Delivery by U.S. Postal Service. Submissions sent to the Attorney General via the U.S. Postal Service shall be addressed to the Chief, Voting Section, Civil Rights Division, Department

of Justice, P.O. Box 66128, Washington, DC 20035-6128.

(b) Delivery by other means. Submissions sent to the Attorney General by carriers other than the U.S. Postal Service should be addressed or may be delivered to the Chief, Voting Section, Civil Rights Division, Department of Justice, 320 First Street, NW., room 818A, Washington, DC 20001.

(c) Special marking. The envelope and first page of the submission shall be clearly marked: Submission under section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

[Order 1214-87, 52 FR 33409, Sept. 3, 1987, as amended by Order No. 1793-93, 58 FR 51225, Oct. 1, 1993]

§ 51.25 Withdrawal of submissions.

(a) A jurisdiction may withdraw a submission at any time prior to a final decision by the Attorney General. Notice of the withdrawal of a submission must be made in writing, addressed to the Chief, Voting Section, as specified in §51.24 of this part. The submission shall be deemed withdrawn upon receipt of the notice.

(b) Notice of withdrawals will be given to interested parties registered under §51.32.

[52 FR 490, Jan. 6, 1987, as amended by Order 1214-87, 52 FR 33409, Sept. 3, 1987]

Subpart C-Contents of Submissions

$51.26 General.

(a) The source of any information contained in a submission should be identified.

(b) Where an estimate is provided in lieu of more reliable statistics, the submission should identify the name, position, and qualifications of the person responsible for the estimate and should briefly describe the basis for the estimate.

(c) Submissions should be no longer than is necessary for the presentation of the appropriate information and materials.

(d) The Attorney General will not accept for review any submission that fails to describe the subject change in sufficient particularity to satisfy the minimum requirements of § 51.27(c).

(e) A submitting authority that desires the Attorney General to consider any information supplied as part of an earlier submission may incorporate such information by reference by stating the date and subject matter of the earlier submission and identifying the relevant information.

(f) Where information requested by this subpart is relevant but not known or available, or is not applicable, the submission should so state.

(g) The following Office of Management and Budget control number under the Paperwork Reduction Act applies to the collection of information requirements contained in these Procedures: OMB No. 1190-0001 (expires February 28, 1994). See 5 CFR 1320.13.

[52 FR 490, Jan. 6, 1987, as amended by Order No. 1284-88, 53 FR 25327, July 6, 1988; Order No. 1498-91, 56 FR 26032, June 6, 1991]

$51.27 Required contents.

Each submission should contain the following information or documents to enable the Attorney General to make the required determination pursuant to section 5 with respect to the submitted change affecting voting:

(a) A copy of any ordinance, enactment, order, or regulation embodying a change affecting voting.

(b) A copy of any ordinance, enactment, order, or regulation embodying the voting practice that is proposed to be repealed, amended, or otherwise changed.

(c) If the change affecting voting either is not readily apparent on the face of the documents provided under paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section or is not embodied in a document, a clear statement of the change explaining the difference between the submitted change and the prior law or practice, or explanatory materials adequate to disclose to the Attorney General the difference between the prior and proposed situation with respect to voting.

(d) The name, title, address, and telephone number of the person making the submission.

(e) The name of the submitting authority and the name of the jurisdiction responsible for the change, if different.