What was the House roll call vote count for the Voting Rights Act of 1965?
Executive summary
The House registered multiple roll-call milestones on the path to the Voting Rights Act of 1965: an initial House passage of H.R. 6400 on July 9, 1965, by a vote of 333–85 (the House bill), and the House’s later adoption of the conference report that produced the final law by a vote most contemporaneous government records list as 328–74 (the conference report adoption) [1] [2] [3] [4]. Some secondary sources report slightly different tallies for the final House action—most notably a 336–88 figure—so it is important to distinguish the separate House roll calls and the primary archival record [5].
1. The procedural landscape: two chambers, two House votes, one law
Congress considered parallel measures—H.R. 6400 in the House and S. 1564 in the Senate—before reconciling them in conference; the Senate passed S. 1564 on May 26, 1965, by 77–19 and sent it to the House while the House worked H.R. 6400 on its floor [1] [6]. The legislative process therefore produced more than one roll-call in the House: an earlier vote on the House bill itself and later votes tied to conference action and the final enrolled bill that went to the President [1] [3].
2. The July 9 House vote: H.R. 6400, 333–85
When the House first voted to pass its own measure, H.R. 6400, the roll call recorded a 333–85 margin on July 9, 1965, a tally reflected in the National Archives account of that stage and in roll-call compilations [1] [2]. That vote represented the House’s initial substantive endorsement of the Voting Rights Act package before conference with the Senate-produced bill and amendments [1].
3. The conference report and the final House tally: 328–74 in authoritative records
After negotiations between the chambers, the House voted to adopt the conference report producing the enacted Voting Rights Act; authoritative legislative histories and House archival material give the roll-call as 328–74 when the House approved the conference compromise in early August 1965 [3] [4]. The Congressional Research Service’s background and overview likewise cites a House roll-call of 328–74 to adopt the conference report on S. 1564, which aligns with the House History Office’s published highlight of the Act [3] [4].
4. Why some sources disagree: competing tallies and the importance of specifying which vote
Not all secondary summaries agree: for example, Ballotpedia summarizes the final congressional adoption as 336–88 in the House and 78–20 in the Senate [5]. That discrepancy illustrates a common archival pitfall—multiple substantive roll-calls during a bill’s life (initial passage of a chamber’s version, amendment votes, motions to recommit, and the ultimate conference-report adoption)—and underlines why historians and reporters must specify which House roll call they are citing [5] [3].
5. The straightforward answer, with context and caveats
The direct answer depends on which House action is meant: the House’s initial passage of H.R. 6400 was 333–85 on July 9, 1965 [1] [2]; the authoritative legislative histories and House archives record the House’s adoption of the conference report that produced the final law as 328–74 in early August 1965 [3] [4]. Secondary aggregators sometimes report alternate tallies (such as 336–88) likely reflecting different procedural steps or data sources, so the archival record (CRS and House History) is the safer reference for the final House roll-call [5] [3] [4].