Bush to sign voting act that he once opposed

With his signature today, President Bush will renew a key part of the Voting Rights Act that singles out 16 states as still practicing voting discrimination, including his state of Texas, where he was governor for six years, and part of Florida, where his brother is governor.

Less than a decade ago, Mr. Bush fought that exact part of the Voting Rights Act, with his appointed secretary of state, Antonio O. Garza Jr., calling the provisions a burdensome and unnecessary federal intrusion into Texas’ affairs.

“The Bush administration has really done a flip-flop on this,” said Edward Blum, a senior fellow at the Center for Equal Opportunity who has studied Texas voting and the Voting Rights Act. “This is not where he was, and this is not the kind of philosophy that then-Governor Bush had when it comes to getting Texas out from under the thumb of the federal government.”

He said Mr. Bush has abandoned “the great color-blind ideals that conservatives believe in.”

The key provision is Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, designed to target six Southern states that had a history of discrimination against black voters. In the early 1970s, Section 5 was broadened to cover nine states — Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia — and parts of seven others — California, Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina and South Dakota.

Those states and localities are deemed so discriminatory that they must get Justice Department approval every time they change voting laws or procedures — right down to moving a polling location.

With Mr. Bush’s signature, that requirement will last through 2032.

Mr. Bush says the Voting Rights Act has been a success, and last week, he told the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that he wanted it renewed “without amendment.”

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the law has “been an effective and important tool in assuring all Americans the right to vote,” and she said it doesn’t target Texas.

“Texas long ago came into compliance with the Voting Rights Act, and the newly reauthorized bill doesn’t change that,” she said.

Mr. Blum, though, said Section 5 clearly singles Texas out among its neighbors such as Oklahoma, Arkansas and New Mexico, which aren’t covered.

“Are Texans so different in their racial attitudes and their behavior toward minorities that Texans require supervision, but not the legislatures of those surrounding states?” he asked.

As governor, Mr. Bush’s administration agreed with that position.

“If Washington thinks we should keep putting up with such bureaucratic micromanagement like we have for the past 20 years, it can guess again. They’re wrong. We don’t need it,” Mr. Garza, said in 1997 when he asked to exempt Texas from Section 5 requirements. Texas papers at the time reported that Mr. Bush shared Mr. Garza’s view.

During Mr. Bush’s time as governor, the Justice Department used Section 5 to object to three voting changes the state made and to six changes by cities, counties and school districts within Texas.

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