U.S. Office of Personnel Management www.opm.gov - Recruiting, Retaining and Honoring a World-Class Workforce to Serve the American People

before the
Subcommittee on the Constitution
Committee on the Judiciary
U.S. House of Representatives

on
 
The Voting Rights Act:
Sections 6 and 8--Federal Examiner and Observer Programs

November 15, 2005

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:

I am pleased to be here this afternoon to discuss the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) role in carrying out sections 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 12 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (the Act). 

Currently, implementation of the Voting Rights Act at OPM is managed by the Division for Human Resources Products and Services in the Center for Talent Services.  This office works closely with the Department of Justice (the Department), specifically the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division, to assign Voting Rights observers to locations designated by the Department.  OPM’s ultimate success with this program depends on its ability to recruit, train, deploy, and supervise observers of election-day procedures.

With regard to responsibilities assigned to OPM (prior to 1979, the U.S. Civil Service Commission), the Voting Rights Act provides, at the request of a U.S. District Court or the Attorney General of the United States, for the appointment of examiners to interview, ascertain qualifications, and register, if appropriate, qualified individuals denied the right to register by State and local officials in covered jurisdictions; hearing officers to entertain appeals and challenges to the actions of examiners; support staff as necessary to allow these individuals to perform their responsibilities; and observers to monitor actual polling places on election day and the subsequent tabulation of the votes.  These provisions have not materially changed since initial passage of the Act in 1965.  The Voting Rights Act also requires OPM to promulgate regulations on procedures for challenging the actions of examiners and to publish in the Federal Register individual State registration qualifications.

Since 1966, we have deployed over 26,000 observers in a total of 22 States.  Prior to 1976, we sent observers to only 5 States:  Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.  In the past 10 years, as more jurisdictions have been subject to coverage under the minority language provisions of the Act, we sent the next largest number of observers, after Mississippi, to these States (in this order):  Arizona, New Mexico, New Jersey, California, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York. 

Voting Rights observers serve as neutral monitors, who do not intervene if there are violations.  They only watch, listen, and record events that occur at particular polling sites on election days.  At present, we have a pool of approximately 900 intermittent employees—called into service on an as-needed basis—who come from all walks of life, including Federal retirees, students, other public- and private-sector workers, and some full-time employees of various Federal agencies. 

We schedule one-day classroom sessions for observers to provide in-depth training on the overall process, specific observer responsibilities, and administrative issues.  We also provide refresher training during pre-briefing sessions on the day before the election.  Whenever possible, we do role-playing in the training to demonstrate to the observers the proper way of handling themselves at the polling sites.

In brief, the deployment process works this way:  Prior to an election, the Department notifies OPM as to when and where it will need observers.  OPM then assigns a Voting Rights Coordinator to (1) work with Justice’s lead attorney to allocate observers to polling sites; (2) coordinate logistics, such as arranging hotel meeting space and sleeping rooms for observers, leasing mobile phones, and making rental car and airline reservations to transport observers; and (3) assign a captain to oversee the execution of the deployment.

The day before an election, a Department attorney briefs the observers, specifying issues of concern and activities to report.  For example, if a jurisdiction has been suspected of hampering non-English speakers’ right to have interpreters or of not providing ballots in other languages as directed by consent decrees or court orders, the Department’s attorney may ask that observers witness the provided assistance and/or make note of how many voters received language assistance.  Observers may also be asked to note how many non-English speakers were turned away from polling sites or were given provisional ballots.  Throughout the day, observers report such information to the captain, who passes this information to a Department attorney.  Only the Department determines if intervention is necessary, and only the Department takes action.  Toward the end of an election day, the Department determines when to call observers back.  The observers then return to their staging site and prepare written reports—one for each polling site—to document what they saw and heard throughout the day.

That is the bulk of what OPM does.  The statute also calls on OPM to have an examiner for each jurisdiction where observers will be assigned.  Originally, examiners prepared a Federally maintained list of voters who were denied the right to register by State and local officials in covered jurisdictions, and they received calls from citizens regarding election-day issues or incidents.  This function, however, has changed over the years.  No voters have been added to the Federally maintained list since 1983 as registration barriers have been eliminated.  Moreover, since there have been no challenges to registration decisions in the past 30 years, there has been no need for hearing officers.  Also, due to advances in technology, toll-free numbers allow citizens to report incidents and information to examiners remotely, in real time, and 24 hours a day during the election period. 

Under the Act, OPM is required to publish voter registration qualifications of each covered State in the Federal Register.  It has also been required to publish the list of examiners, places for voter registration, and examiner assignments.  However, these publication requirements may no longer be necessary, since they are now covered nationwide by provisions of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and “Motor-Voter” statute (National Voter Registration Act), which set out Federal standards for voter registration.

OPM’s Voting Rights Program costs have ranged from under $1 million in earlier years to a high of $4 million in the Fiscal Year that included the 2004 general election.  Putting aside the expected increase in 2004, the overall trend has been for an increase in program coverage and cost, particularly for minority-language coverage.

That concludes my testimony, and I would be pleased to respond to any questions the subcommittee may have.