Voting Rights Act Extension of 1975: Expands Protection to Language Minorities Including Latino, Asian, and Native American Voters

President Gerald Ford signed the Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1975, extending the VRA’s special provisions for seven years and dramatically expanding its scope to protect language minorities—including Latino, Asian American, Native American, and Alaska Native voters. The amendments recognized that English-only election materials and literacy tests functioned as tools of discrimination against citizens whose first language was not English.

The 1975 amendments created Section 203, requiring jurisdictions with significant language minority populations to provide bilingual voting materials and assistance. Coverage was triggered when more than 5% of voting-age citizens belonged to a single language minority group, or when more than 10,000 voting-age citizens were language minorities, and when the English illiteracy rate of that group exceeded the national average. Initially, the provision covered approximately 375 jurisdictions in 30 states.

The amendments also permanently banned literacy tests nationwide, making the 1970 temporary suspension permanent. This recognized that literacy tests had never been administered fairly and served no legitimate purpose beyond voter suppression. Additionally, the law brought Texas fully under Section 5 preclearance requirements, along with counties in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, and other states with significant language minority discrimination.

Representative Barbara Jordan of Texas, the first Black woman elected to Congress from the Deep South, championed the extension. Edward Roybal of California led efforts to include language minority protections. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) provided crucial legal expertise on how English-only elections disenfranchised Spanish-speaking citizens who were otherwise qualified voters.

The 1975 extension faced opposition from those who argued it unfairly singled out Southern states and imposed burdensome requirements on election officials. Ford expressed reservations but signed the bill, recognizing the political cost of vetoing voting rights legislation. The language minority provisions proved transformative: Latino voter registration and participation increased substantially in covered jurisdictions, and the number of Latino elected officials grew dramatically over subsequent decades. The amendments demonstrated the VRA’s capacity for expansion beyond its original focus on Black disenfranchisement in the South.