Cite as: 520 U. S. 273 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
system, the "New System," is the system that Mississippi put into place after February 10, 1995, in a further effort to comply with the NVRA. We shall briefly explain the relevant features of each system.
The Old System. Before 1995, Mississippi administered a voting registration system, which, like the systems of most States, provided for a single registration that allowed the registrant to vote in both federal elections and state elections (i. e., elections for state and local offices). Under Mississippi law, a citizen could register to vote either by appearing personally at a county or municipal clerk's office or at other locations (such as polling places) that the clerk or his deputy visited to register people to vote. Miss. Code Ann. §§ 23-15-35, 23-15-37, 23-15-39(6) (1990). Mississippi citizens could also register by obtaining a mail-in registration form available at driver's license agencies, public schools, and public libraries, among other places, and mailing it back to the clerk. Miss. Code Ann. § 23-15-47(2)(a) (Supp. 1996). The law set forth various details, requiring, for example, that a mail-in application contain the name and address of the voter and that it be attested to by a witness, ibid. (although there is some dispute between the parties about whether an application could be rejected for failing to have the witness' signature). State law also allowed county registration officials to purge voters from the rolls if they had not voted in four years. Miss. Code Ann. § 23-15-159 (1990).
The Provisional Plan. In late 1994, the Mississippi secretary of state, with the help of an NVRA implementation committee, prepared a series of voter registration changes designed to ensure compliance with the NVRA. The new voter registration application that was incorporated into the driver's license form, for example, did not require that the registrant repeat his or her address, nor did it require an attesting witness. The secretary of state provided information and instructions about those changes to voter registration officials and state agency personnel throughout the
277
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007