Manassas Park Officials Seek to End Excessive Federal Oversight

While the majority of communities in the US have the right to hold voter drives and change precincts without the oversight of the Federal government, Manassas Park does not. The city can't even change office locations within city hall without oversight from the U.S. Department of Justice, Manassas Park Voting Registrar Patricia Brendel said.

 It is a process, Brendel said, she feels the city could do without. Recently Brendel and an attorney working for the city have started working on a plan to stop the department of justice's tight oversight on the city. “We want to achieve bailout,” Brendel said.

 Section Four of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 mandated many jurisdictions within the Commonwealth and in other locales throughout the country to seek department of justice approval if they wanted to change anything related to the voting process.

This was an effort to protect African-Americans and other minorities from voter discrimination.

The law did its job, protecting the rights of the voters, but today it is more of a hindrance, she said.  Today, Brendel said, any request the city makes to the department of  justice takes 60 days to process, not to mention the time it takes filing the paperwork.

 To achieve bailout, the city must prove a number of things, mainly that there have been no voting tests, discriminatory voting practices, or violations to local, state, or federal voting laws within the past 10 years. Once the information is gathered, it will be sent to the department of justice.

Once the information is received, lawyers working for the justice department will gather their own information and the city will go to court to petition for the bailout.

 “In the past the [bailout] process was lengthy and cost a lot of money. That's why a lot of localities were worried about doing it,” she said.  But now the process is shorter and this is the right time, Brendel said.

 Brendel said that once bailout is achieved, voters won't really notice a difference.  “It will make it easier to do more voter drives,” she said.

While bailout means the city will no longer have to go to the department of justice for simple changes with things related to voting, “We will still have to amend to the act,” she said.

 Brendel said there have been advertisements around the city to let voters know what's going on, but if anyone has questions or needs explanations,they should  feel free to call her office. Brendel can be reached at 703-335-8806.