The Nation : Voting Act Power Widened

The Justice Department has decided to allow the strictest enforcement of the Voting Rights Act by giving its attorneys broader authority to veto planned voting changes that would have a discriminatory result, regardless of intent, in thousands of communities, sources said. The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that use of the so-called results test in judging such changes was approved by Assistant Atty. Gen. William Bradford Reynolds, head of the department’s civil rights division. The policy will be the crucial element of department regulations that may be made public as early as today, the sources said.