Hawai'i will not become the only state fully covered by a law requiring federal oversight of elections.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted to renew the Voting Rights Act yesterday, and it rejected amendments from Southern conservatives that would have shifted federal scrutiny to states with low voter turnout.

Hawai'i, which had the lowest voter turnout in the nation in the past two presidential elections, does not have a history of voting discrimination complaints.

"It aims to make low voter turnout and registration the issues and not a recorded history of voting discrimination," said Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawai'i, who voted against the amendment offered by Georgia Rep. Charlie Norwood.

The Voting Rights Act was renewed by a vote of 390-33. Both Case and fellow Hawai'i Democrat Neil Abercrombie voted to renew the act.

Under the defeated amendment, Hawai'i would have been the only state fully covered by the strictest provisions of the law. It still would have applied to individual counties in other states that have low turnout.

"One cannot reduce discrimination nor the need for federal oversight to so simplistic and mechanistic formula," Case said.

The Voting Rights Act was originally passed by Congress in 1965 and aimed at ending abuses that prevented black citizens from voting.

The bill still faces turmoil in the Senate. The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said he wanted the committee to consider the bill on Wednesday, but Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has not scheduled floor action.