University of Virginia Library

State Tests Validity
Of Voting Rights Act

By Rob Pritchard
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

The state of Virginia joined Idaho
earlier this week in seeking to overturn
provisions of the Voting Rights Act of
1970, by filing a brief in U.S. Supreme
Court.

In filing an amicus curiae [friend of
the court] brief, Virginia's Attorney
General Andrew P. Miller challenged the
validity of amendments adopted by
Congress which includes lowering the
minimum voting age in presidential
elections from 21 to 18.

"The power of the states to prescribe voter
qualifications is original and independent, not
derivative or subordinate," said Mr. Miller. The
key provisions in the 1970 Voting Rights Act
that Virginia is challenging involve the drop in
voting age from 21 to 18 and the removal of
virtually all residency requirements for vice
presidential and presidential election balloting.

Mr. Miller said that the right to prescribe
voting laws "is not granted to the states by any
law, but remains with the states where it has
existed since the formation of the union...

"It cannot be usurped by the dogmatic
application of a standard impossible for the
states to meet, nor by allegedly 'appropriate'
legislation of Congress passed without any
constitutional warrant."

Virginia's General Assembly this spring
toughened the state's absentee voting
provisions, effective Dec. 1, and also refused to
go along with the lowering of the voting age
from 21 to 18 when it meets in special session
last year for the purpose of revising the state's
constitution.