288
Opinion of the Court
state legislature would enact the bill, or (2) it sought approval whether or not the state legislature would enact the bill. Although there is one reference to the possibility of a "dual registration system" in the absence of legislation, App. 72, the submission simply did not specify what would happen if the legislature did not pass the bill, and it thereby created ambiguity about whether the practices and procedures described in the submission would be implemented regardless of what the legislature did. The VRA permits the Attorney General to resolve such ambiguities against the submitting State. McCain, 465 U. S., at 249, 255-257 (burden is on the State to submit a complete and unambiguous description of proposed changes); Clark v. Roemer, 500 U. S. 646, 658-659 (1991) (relying on "presumption that any ambiguity in the scope of the preclearance request must be construed against the [State]" (internal quotation marks and citations omitted)). See also 28 CFR §§ 51.26(d), 51.27(c) (1996) (requiring preclearance submissions to explain changes clearly and in detail). Hence, the Attorney General could read her approval of the submitted plan as an approval of a plan that rested on the assumption that the proposed changes would be valid for all elections, not a plan in which NVRA registration does not qualify the registrant to vote in state elections. We find nothing in the Attorney General's regulations that forces a contrary conclusion.
Mississippi adds that the Attorney General—if faced with an ambiguity—could have sought more information to clarify the situation, to determine what would happen if the legislature failed to pass the bill, for example. And the Attorney General could then have withheld her approval once she found out what would likely occur. Again, Mississippi is right as to what the Attorney General might have done. See § 51.37(a) (Attorney General may request more information about submissions). Indeed, the United States "acknowledge[s]" that with "the benefit of hindsight, . . . such a request might have been preferable" to preclearing the sub-
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