Cite as: 520 U. S. 273 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
lants argue that the simple fact that a voting practice is unlawful under state law does not show, entirely by itself, that the practice was never "in force or effect." We agree. A State, after all, might maintain in effect for many years a plan that technically, or in one respect or another, violated some provision of state law. Cf. Perkins v. Matthews, 400 U. S. 379, 394-395 (1971) (deeming ward system "in fact 'in force or effect' " and requiring change from wards to at-large elections to be precleared even though ward system was illegal and at-large elections were required under state law (emphasis in original)); City of Lockhart v. United States, 460 U. S. 125, 132-133 (1983) (numbered-post election system was "in effect" although it may have been unauthorized by state law). But that is not the situation here.
In this case, those seeking to administer the Provisional Plan did not intend to administer an unlawful plan. They expected it to become lawful. They abandoned the Provisional Plan as soon as its unlawfulness became apparent, i. e., as soon as it became clear that the legislature would not pass the laws needed to make it lawful. Moreover, all these events took place within the space of a few weeks. The plan was used to register voters for only 41 days, and only about a third of the State's voter registration officials had begun to use it. Further, the State held no elections prior to its abandonment of the Provisional Plan, nor were any elections imminent. These circumstances taken together lead us to conclude that the Provisional Plan was not "in force or effect"; hence it did not become part of the baseline against which we are to judge whether future change occurred.
B
We nonetheless agree with the appellants and the Government that the New System included changes that must be, but have not been, precleared. That is because the New System contains "practices and procedures" that are significantly "different from" the Old System—the system that was
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