278
Opinion of the Court
scheme. The State urges, in response, that § 5 expressly limits its preclearance requirements to covered jurisdictions. "Partially covered" jurisdictions like California, the State insists, are under no obligation to comply with § 5. Appellants do not argue, however, that the State is obligated to seek preclearance for voting changes that it effects. Rather, appellants claim that the County, which is unquestionably subject to § 5, must pursue preclearance for state-sponsored voting changes that it "seek[s] to administer." That the nonprecleared aspects of the countywide voting plan may now be required by state law, in appellants' view, is irrelevant to the § 5 analysis because it is the County that "seek[s] to administer" the scheme. Accordingly, the question before this Court is whether a covered jurisdiction "seek[s] to administer" a voting change when, without exercising any independent discretion, the jurisdiction implements a change required by the superior law of a noncovered State. Because we agree with appellants that a covered jurisdiction "seek[s] to administer" a voting change even where the jurisdiction exercises no discretion in giving effect to a state-mandated change, we conclude that the County is required to seek preclearance before implementing California laws that effect voting changes in the County.
The face of the Act itself provides the most compelling support for appellants' claim. The phrase "seek to administer" provides no indication that Congress intended to limit § 5's preclearance obligations to the discretionary actions of covered jurisdictions. To the contrary, "administer" is consistently defined in purely nondiscretionary terms. See, e. g., Webster's Third New International Dictionary 27 (1961) ("to manage the affairs of," "to direct or superintend the execution, use, or conduct of"); Random House Dictionary of the English Language 26 (2d ed. 1987) ("to manage (affairs, a government, etc.); have executive charge of"); Black's Law Dictionary 44 (6th ed. 1990) ("To manage or conduct"). The State's view that "administer" is intended to capture a cov-
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