The Falls Church City Council seemed in accord at its work session tonight that it would pass a resolution at its business meeting next Monday night to formally request an exemption from the U.S. Department of Justice so that it would not be required to submit every election-related revision the City makes to the DOJ for review as stipulated under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The process currently requires the DOJ to be permitted a minimum of 60 days to validate election-related decisions. City Attorney John Foster spoke strongly in favor of requesting the exemption tonight. The Commonwealth of Virginia was among the states singled out in the Voting Rights Act as requiring such DOJ oversight to ensure the election process does not discriminate on the basis of race or any other factor, and since it became law, and handful of local Virginia jurisdictions have sought and received exemptions from the DOJ oversight portion of the law, including the City of Fairfax in northern Virginia.
