Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/674

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PRESLEY v. ETOWAH COUNTY COMM’N Stevens, J., dissenting

submitted during the first five years of administration.11 At that time, the covered jurisdictions were able to respond to the increase in the number of black registered voters by means that prevented the newly registered minority voters from having a proportionate impact on the political process. In Allen and its companion cases,12 however, the Court held that some of these responses, even if not described in the literal text of the Act, were nevertheless included within the scope of § 5. Relying heavily on the statutory definition of voting as encompassing “ ‘all action necessary to make a vote effective,’ ” 393 U. S., at 565–566, and the broad remedial purposes of the Act, the Court held that a change from district to at-large voting for county supervisors, a change that made an important county office appointive rather than elective, and a change that altered the requirements for independent candidates, were all covered voting practices. Id., at 569–571. Thus, § 5 was not limited to changes directly affecting the casting of a ballot. Id., at 569 (“The right to vote can be affected by a dilution of voting power as well as by an absolute prohibition on casting a ballot. See Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U. S. 533, 555 (1964)”). Nothing in Allen implied that the Court had defined an exhaustive category of changes covered by the Act.13 On the contrary, the Court 11 See United States v. Sheffield Bd. of Comm’rs, 435 U. S., at 148, n. 10 (Stevens, J., dissenting); see also U. S. Commission on Civil Rights, The Voting Rights Act: Ten Years After, p. 25, n. 53 (1975) (“In the first 6 years of the act, section 5 was hardly used at all”). 12 Allen was argued along with Fairley v. Patterson, 393 U. S. 544 (1969) (§ 5 applied to a change from district to at-large election of county supervisors), Bunton v. Patterson, 393 U. S. 544 (1969) (§ 5 applied to change in which the position of county officer became appointive instead of elective), and Whitley v. Williams, 393 U. S. 544 (1969) (changes aimed at increasing the difficulty for an independent candidate to gain a position on a general election ballot were subject to § 5), on appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. 13 Although the majority today agrees that § 5 is not limited to only the changes covered in our earlier opinions, see ante, at 502, it nevertheless attempts to fit today’s changes into one of the earlier models, see ante, at