Hawai'i, a state without a history of voting discrimination complaints, could become the only state fully covered by a law requiring federal oversight of elections.

A proposed amendment to the Voting Rights Act would change the law to apply to states with less than half of eligible voters going to the polls in any of the past three presidential elections.

Hawai'i had the lowest voter turnout in the nation in the past two presidential elections, with 44 percent of eligible voters participating in 2000 and 51 percent in 2004, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

No other state had turnouts of less than 50 percent, so the act if amended would apply only to Hawai'i statewide. The act still would apply to individual counties in other states that have low turnout.

The Voting Rights Act, which was passed by Congress in 1965 and primarily was aimed at ending abuses that prevented black citizens from voting, is up for renewal.

One amendment, proposed by Georgia Republican Rep. Charlie Norwood, has been passed out of the House Rules Committee for consideration by the full House. There is no guarantee it will be attached to the final bill.

"We're concerned over whether or not there is a correlation between turnout and perceived violations" if the amendment passes, said Rex Quidilla, Hawai'i's voting services coordinator. "The elections process in Hawai'i has a long reputation of being open, honest and secure."

Federal oversight of Hawai'i's elections would mean that the state couldn't change its election laws without federal approval, and elections would be monitored by the U.S. Department of Justice. The law currently affects jurisdictions in 16 states, mostly in the South.

"The whole point of the Voting Rights Act is to get to states and jurisdictions that have historic and ongoing problems of discrimination," said Deborah Vagins, policy counsel with the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union. "In the currently covered states, there is still ongoing discrimination against minorities."

Vagins said the proposal would weaken the Voting Rights Act by enforcing it in states where it isn't needed and removing it from areas where it is.

Hawai'i Reps. Ed Case and Neil Abercrombie, both Democrats, voiced reservations about making changes to the Voting Rights Act.

Case described the act as among the most significant pieces of legislation of the past half-century. He said the act is necessary to prevent states originally targeted from sliding backward and said it should not be amended to affect states like Hawai'i.

"Unfortunately, we have a low voter turnout, but it is not the result of any systematic effort to exclude segments of our population," he said.

Abercrombie supports the current law and doesn't think Hawai'i has the same tradition of election problems found in other states, said his spokesman, Mike Slackman.

Supporters of the amendment see the need for fairness in determining statewide federal oversight, which has mostly applied to Southern states.

"It provides uniform enforcement nationwide so the whole country would be judged under the same rules," said John Stone, a spokesman for Norwood.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said yesterday that President Bush wants the Voting Rights Act renewed in its present form. The act expires in 2007.

Gannett News Service contributed to this report.