Officials seek voting exemption

By Justin Faulconer

Published: June 18, 2008

Amherst County officials are trying to get an exemption to a section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that requires reporting each instance of a voting change to the Department of Justice.

County Administrator Rodney Taylor said the county is seeking the exemption, also called a “bailout,” because submitting changes to the department is a “cumbersome process.”

“You have to go through a lot of legal hoops whenever there is a change,” said Ray Vandall, an Amherst County supervisor.

County officials insist having the exemption would never hurt individuals’ voting rights.

“What we want to do as a county does nothing to deny anyone’s right to vote,” said Mary Fink, chairperson of the Amherst Electoral Board. “It just makes it easier for us.”

Last month the county filed a “bailout lawsuit” in federal court to pursue the exemption. It is not a punitive suit, Taylor said.

If it succeeds, the county would join 10 other counties and four cities in Virginia that are now exempt, according to the state board of elections. It would become the first in Central Virginia to do so.

Amherst County supervisors last year hired Washington, D.C., attorney J. Gerald Hebert to work on the county’s request. He has represented each jurisdiction that has secured a bailout since the city of Fairfax first did so in 1996. He is also working on two other pending requests in Page and Washington counties.

Hebert said a bailout could save a locality time and money when making voting changes that are often simple. Examples include changing a polling location or switching ballot methods.

“It’s a matter of convenience — you don’t have to wait (at least 60 days) for routine voting changes,” he said.

Hebert said a jurisdiction has to become eligible for a bailout before the process can start, which he said Amherst has done.

The justice department this spring conducted an independent investigation, he said, to make sure it met criteria.

Hebert said criteria include a track record of timely approvals by the department for changes, not facing any lawsuits based on discrimination and having polling places handicap accessible.

The investigation found the county is not engaging in voter discrimination — a major rule within the act, he said.

Nancy Lewis, chairperson of the Amherst chapter of the NAACP, said she is not aware of any recent voter discrimination complaints.

She said she just wants this upcoming election to go smoothly with Sen. Barack Obama, the nation’s first African-American presidential candidate, on the ticket.

“I wouldn’t want to see any problems in this election,” said Lewis. “We haven’t had any in the past.”

Vandall said the county would continue to responsibly monitor voting procedures, and any major future changes, would still require notifying the justice department. The request for the exemption, he said, is motivated by a need to save resources.

“They (justice department) are certainly not going to let us do anything that appears to be racially motivated,” said Vandall.

The department still has to approve the exemption, which Hebert said he expects to happen this summer.