In June 2013, the Supreme Court ruled in Shelby County v. Holder that states with a history of racial discrimination no longer needed to approve proposed changes to their voting procedures with the federal government. The court ruled that the coverage formula was based on 40-year-old data that was not applicable to current needs. Thus the 2016 presidential election was the first in 50 years without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. The objective of this paper is to examine the changes in voter turnout between the 2012 and the 2016 national elections due to the changes in the Voting Rights Act. Using data from the voter file vendor Catalist and information from the U.S. Census Bureau, this paper examined changes in turnout rates for different racial/ethnic groups between 2012 and 2016. The findings indicated (1) African American turnout declined substantially; (2) white turnout increased considerably; (3) Latino American turnout increased, and (4) in the key swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, fluctuations in voter participation were especially strong. Voter enthusiasm and perceived voter suppression efforts had a huge impact on voter turnout. In addition, not being able to identify with candidates or properly researching candidates’ political goals hampered the desire to vote, especially in Black Americans.
| Published in | International Journal of Education, Culture and Society (Volume 6, Issue 5) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.11 |
| Page(s) | 159-166 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Voting Rights, Voter Suppression, Voter ID Laws, Voter Disenfranchisement
| [1] | AALDEF. (2017). The Asian American Vote 2016: A Report by the Legal Defense and Asian American Education Fund. New York, NY. |
| [2] | Barnes, R. (2013). Supreme Court stops use of key part of Voting Rights Act. Washington Post, June 25, 2013. Washington, DC. |
| [3] | Barreto, M. A. (2010). Ethnic Cues: The Role of Shared Ethnicity in Latino Political Participation. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. |
| [4] | Barreto, M. A., Segura, G. M., & Woods, N. D. (2004). The Mobilizing Effect of Majority-Minority Districts on Latino Turnout. American Political Science Review, 98, 65–75. |
| [5] | Berman, A. (2013). Conservatives Take Aim at Voting Rights (Voting Rights Act of 1965). The Nation, 296, 11- 17. |
| [6] | Berman, A. (2015). Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. |
| [7] | Black, M. (1978). Racial composition of congressional districts and support for federal voting rights in the American South. Social Science Quarterly, 59, 435-45. |
| [8] | Bullock, C. S. (1981). Congressional voting and the mobilization of a black electorate in the South. Journal of Politics, 43, 662-682. |
| [9] | Bullock, C. S., & Gaddie, R. K. (2009). The Triumph of Voting Rights in the South. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. |
| [10] | Burns, M. J. (2012). Shelby County v. Holder and the Voting Rights Act: Getting the Right Answer with the Wrong Standard. Catholic University Law Review, 62, 227-252. |
| [11] | Burton, O. V., Finnegan, T. R., McCrary, P. & Loewen, J. W. (1994). South Carolina. In Quiet Revolution in the South: The Impact of the Voting Rights Act, 1965-1990, C. Davidson, Bernard Grofman (Eds.). Princeton: Princeton University Press, 21-37. |
| [12] | Button, J. W. (1989). Blacks and Social Change: Impact of the Civil Rights Movement in Southern Communities. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. |
| [13] | Campbell, B. (1977). Partisan loyalties of southerners. Journal of Politics, 39, 730-761. |
| [14] | Canon, D. (1999). Race, Redistricting and Representation: The Unintended Consequences of Black Majority Districts. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. |
| [15] | Cascio, E. U., & Washington, E. (2014). Valuing the vote: the redistribution of voting rights and state funds following the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 129, 379-433. |
| [16] | Castle, D., & Stanley, H. W. (1982). Partisan realignment in the South: making sense of scholarly dissonance. Paper presented at the Southern Political Science Association Convention, Atlanta, GA, October 28-30. |
| [17] | Cox, K. (2014). The Voting Rights Act under Review: Shelby County v. Holder and the Consequences of Change. Wayne Law Review, 60, 493-513. |
| [18] | Current Population Survey. 2010. Voting and Registration. http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/socdemo/voting/ |
| [19] | Davidson, C. (1994). The Recent Evolution of Voting Rights Law Affecting Racial and Language Minorities. In Quiet Revolution in the South: The Impact of the Voting Rights Act, 1965-1990, C. Davidson, Bernard Grofman (Eds.). Princeton: Princeton University Press, 21-37. |
| [20] | Davidson, C., & Grofman, B. (1994). Quiet Revolution in the South: The Impact of the Voting Rights Act, 1965-1990. Princeton University Press. |
| [21] | Donohue III, J. J., Heckman, J. J., & Todd, P. E. (2002). The Schooling of Southern Blacks: The Roles of Legal Activism and Private Philanthropy, 1910-1960. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117, 225-268. |
| [22] | Endersby, J., & Menifeld, C. E. (2000). Representation, Ethnicity and Congress: Black and Hispanic Representatives and Constituencies. In Black and Multiracial Politics in America, Yvette Alex-Assensoh and Lawrence J. Hanks (Eds.). New York: New York University Press, pp. 257–72. |
| [23] | Filer, J. E., Kenny, L. W., & Morton, R. B. (1991). Voting Laws, Educational Policies, and Minority Turnout. Journal Law and Economics, 34, 371-393. |
| [24] | Fraga, B. L., McElwee, S., Rhodes, J., & Schaffner, B. (2017). Why did Trump Win? More Whites-and fewer Blacks-actually voted. The Washington Post, May 8. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/05/08/why-did-trump-win-more-whites-and-fewer-blacks-than-normal-actually-voted/?utm_term=.7613576a405a |
| [25] | Fraga. B. L. (2016). Candidates or Districts? Reevaluating the Role of Race in Voter Turnout. American Journal of Political Science, 60, 97-122. |
| [26] | Frey, W. H. (2017). Census Shows Pervasive Decline in 2016 Minority Voter Turnout. The Avenue, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2017/05/18/census-shows-pervasive-decline-in-2016-minority-voter-turnout/ |
| [27] | Greenbaum, J., Martinson, A., & Gill, S. (2014). Shelby County v. Holder: When the Rational Becomes Irrational. (Civil Rights at a Critical Juncture: Confronting Old Conflicts and New Challenges). Howard Law Journal, 57, 811-867. |
| [28] | Grofman, B., & Davidson, C. (1992). Controversies in Minority Voting: The Voting Rights Act in Perspective. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution. |
| [29] | Grofman, B., & Handley, L. (1998). Voting Rights in the 1990s: An Overview. In Race and Redistricting in the 1990s, Bernard Grofman, (Ed.) New York: Agathon Press, 69–79. |
| [30] | Guinier, L. (1994). The Tyranny of the Majority: Fundamental Fairness in Representative Democracy. New York The Free Press. |
| [31] | Harada, M. (2012). The Voting Rights Act of 1965 and Strategic Policy Making in the South. State Politics & Policy Quarterly, 12, 456-482. |
| [32] | Hauer, M. (2014). Shelby County v. Holder: Why Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is Constitutional and Remains Necessary to Protect Minority Voting Rights under the Fifteenth Amendment. Vermont Law Review, 38, 1027-1043. |
| [33] | Heckelman, J. C. (1995). The Effect of the Secret Ballot on Voter Turnout Rates. Public Choice, 82, 107-24. |
| [34] | Hopps, J. G., & Bowles, D. D. (2015). A Response to Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder: Energizing, Educating and Empowering Voters, Phylon, 52, 1-23. |
| [35] | Hur, A., & Achen, C. H. (2013). Coding Voter Turnout Responses in the Current Population Survey. Public Opinion Quarterly, 77, 985–93. |
| [36] | Husted, T. A., & Kenny, L. W. (1997). The Effect of the Expansion of the Voting Franchise on the Size of Government. Journal of Political Economy, 105, 54-82. |
| [37] | Jamieson, A., Shin, H. B., & Day, J. (2001). U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, Series PPL-152. Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2000. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. |
| [38] | Jang, S. (2009). Get Out on Behalf of Your Group: Electoral Participation of Latinos and Asian Americans. Political Behavior, 31, 511–535. |
| [39] | Johnston, C. (2015). Proportional Voting Through the Elections Clause: Protecting Voting Rights Post-Shelby County. UCLA Law Review, 62. |
| [40] | Jones, D. B., Troesken, W., & Walsh, R. (2012). A Poll Tax by Any Other Name: The Political Economy of Disenfranchisement. NBER Working Paper No. w18612. |
| [41] | Jones-Correa, M. (2005). Language Provisions Under the Voting Rights Act: How Effective Are They? Social Science Quarterly, 86, 549-564. |
| [42] | Kealing, J. (2013). U.S. Supreme Court strikes down key provision of Voting Rights Act. Public Radio International. Retrieved 8, July 2013. |
| [43] | Keech, W. R. (1968). The Impact of Negro Voting. Chicago: Rand McNally. |
| [44] | Keele, L. Shah, P., White, I., & Kay, K. (2014). Black Candidates and Black Turnout: A Study of Mayoral Elections in the New South. Paper presented at the Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL. |
| [45] | Key, V. O. [(1949) 1984]. Southern Politics in State and Nation. New York: University of Tennessee Press. |
| [46] | King Jr., M. L. (1965). Civil Right Number No. 1: The Right to Vote. New York Times, March 14, SM26. |
| [47] | Kirchubel, M. (2016). Voter suppression tactics in action. Daily Republic, March 28, page A8. |
| [48] | Knickrehm, K. M., & Bent, D. (1988). Voting Rights, Voter Turnout, and Realignment: The Impact of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Journal of Black Studies, 18, 283-296. |
| [49] | Krogstad, J. M., & Lopez, M. H. (2017). Black voter turnout fell in 2016, even as a record number of Americans cast ballots. Pew Research Center, May 12, 2017. |
| [50] | Lee, T. (2016). Asian American Voters In The 2016 Election. The Blog. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/latino-decisions/asian-american-voters-in_b_12637044.html |
| [51] | Leighley, J., & Vedlitz, A. (1999). Race, Ethnicity, and Political Participation: Competing Models and Contrasting Explanations. Journal of Politics, 61, 1092–1114. |
| [52] | Lien, P. (1994). Ethnicity and Political Participation: A Comparison between Asian and Mexican Americans. Political Behavior, 16, 237–264. |
| [53] | Lopez, M. H., Gonzalez-Barrera, A., Krogstad, J. M., & Lopez, G. (2016). Democrats Maintain Edge as Party ‘More Concerned’ for Latinos, but Views Similar to 2012. Pew Research Center. |
| [54] | Lublin, D. (1997). The Paradox of Representation: Racial Gerrymandering and Minority Interests in Congress. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. |
| [55] | Margo, R. (1990). Race and Schooling in the South, 1880–1950: An Economic History. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. |
| [56] | Marinaccio, V. (2014). Protecting Voters' Rights: The Aftermath of Shelby v. Holder. Whittier Law Review, 35, 531-557. |
| [57] | Mellnik, T., Muyskens, J., Soffen, K., & and Clement, S. (2017). Politics Analysis That Big Wave of Less-Educated White Voters? It Never Happened. The Washington Post, May 10, 2017. |
| [58] | Naidu, S. (2012). Suffrage, Schooling, and Sorting in the Post-Bellum U.S. South. NBER Working Paper No. w18129. |
| [59] | Parker, K. D., Murty, K. S., Lakshminath, A., & Tilles, D. O. (2016). Racial Microaggressions and Voter Suppression Tactics in the United States. Paper presented at the 6th Annual National Civil Rights Conference, June 20-22, 2016, Meridian, MS. |
| [60] | Pew Research Center. (2017). Black Voter Turnout Rate Declined Sharply in 2016, Dropping Below that of Whites. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/05/12/black-voter-turnout-fell-in-2016-even-as-a-record-number-of-americans-cast-ballots/ |
| [61] | Platt, M. B. (2015). An Examination of Black Representation and the Legacy of the Voting Rights Act. Phylon, 52, 87-107. |
| [62] | Rocha, R. R., Tolbert, C. J., Bowen, D. C., & Clark, C. J. (2010). Race and Turnout: Does Descriptive Representation in State Legislatures Increase Minority Voting? Political Research Quarterly, 63, 890–907. |
| [63] | Rodgers Jr., H. R., & Bullock III, C. S. (1972). Law and Social Change: Civil Rights Laws and Their Consequences. New York: McGraw-Hill. |
| [64] | Rosenberg, G. N. (2008). The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring About Social Change. University of Chicago Press. |
| [65] | Rusk, J. G., & Stucker, J. J. (1978). The Effect of the Southern System of Election Laws on Voting Participation: A Reply to V. 0. Key, Jr. In The History of American Electoral Behavior, edited by Joel H. Silbey, Allan G. Bogue, and William H. Flanigan. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press. |
| [66] | Sanchez, G., & Barreto, M. A. (2016). In record numbers, Latinos voted overwhelmingly against Trump. We did the research. The Washington Post, November 11, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/11/11/in-record-numbers-latinos-voted-overwhelmingly-against-trump-we-did-the-research/?utm_term=.11753f51f4f1 |
| [67] | Schwinn, S. D. (2013). Shelby County v. Holder: What it Means for the Voting Rights Act. Social Education, 77, 243-247. |
| [68] | Shaw, D., de la Garza, R. O., & Lee, J. (2000). Examining Latino Turnout in 1996: A Three-State, Validated Approach. American Journal of Political Science, 44, 332–40. |
| [69] | Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 2. (2013). https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-96_6k47.pdf. |
| [70] | Shelby County v. Holder. (2017). https://www.oyez.org/cases/2012/12-96. |
| [71] | Swain, C. (1993). Black Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African Americans in Congress. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. |
| [72] | Terchek, R. J. (1980). Political Participation and Political Structures: The Voting Rights Act of 1965. Phylon, 41, 25-35. |
| [73] | Valelly, R. M. (2004). The Two Reconstructions: The Struggle for Black Enfranchisement. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. |
| [74] | Verba, S., & Nie, N. H. (1972). Participation in America: Political Democracy and Social Equality. New York: Harper and Row. |
| [75] | Washington, E. (2006). How Black Candidates Affect Voter Turnout. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 121, 973–98. |
| [76] | Washington, E. (2012). Do Majority-Black Districts Limit Blacks’ Representation? The Case of the 1990 Redistricting. Journal of Law and Economics, 55, 251–274. |
| [77] | Whitby, K. J. (2007). The Effect of Black Descriptive Representation on Black Electoral Turnout in the 2004 Elections. Social Science Quarterly, 88, 1010–23. |
| [78] | Wilson, R. (2017). Voter turnout dipped in 2016, led by decline among blacks. The Hill http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/332970-voter-turnout-dipped-in-2016-led-by-decline-among-blacks |
APA Style
Keith Parker, Dora Tilles, Clifton Brown, Dawn Brown McGlotten. (2021). Voter Participation in the Absence of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. International Journal of Education, Culture and Society, 6(5), 159-166. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.11
ACS Style
Keith Parker; Dora Tilles; Clifton Brown; Dawn Brown McGlotten. Voter Participation in the Absence of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Int. J. Educ. Cult. Soc. 2021, 6(5), 159-166. doi: 10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.11
AMA Style
Keith Parker, Dora Tilles, Clifton Brown, Dawn Brown McGlotten. Voter Participation in the Absence of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Int J Educ Cult Soc. 2021;6(5):159-166. doi: 10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.11
Share This Article
Twitter
Linked In
Facebook
Copy
Download@article{10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.11,
author = {Keith Parker and Dora Tilles and Clifton Brown and Dawn Brown McGlotten},
title = {Voter Participation in the Absence of the 1965 Voting Rights Act},
journal = {International Journal of Education, Culture and Society},
volume = {6},
number = {5},
pages = {159-166},
doi = {10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.11},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.11},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijecs.20210605.11},
abstract = {In June 2013, the Supreme Court ruled in Shelby County v. Holder that states with a history of racial discrimination no longer needed to approve proposed changes to their voting procedures with the federal government. The court ruled that the coverage formula was based on 40-year-old data that was not applicable to current needs. Thus the 2016 presidential election was the first in 50 years without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. The objective of this paper is to examine the changes in voter turnout between the 2012 and the 2016 national elections due to the changes in the Voting Rights Act. Using data from the voter file vendor Catalist and information from the U.S. Census Bureau, this paper examined changes in turnout rates for different racial/ethnic groups between 2012 and 2016. The findings indicated (1) African American turnout declined substantially; (2) white turnout increased considerably; (3) Latino American turnout increased, and (4) in the key swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, fluctuations in voter participation were especially strong. Voter enthusiasm and perceived voter suppression efforts had a huge impact on voter turnout. In addition, not being able to identify with candidates or properly researching candidates’ political goals hampered the desire to vote, especially in Black Americans.},
year = {2021}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Voter Participation in the Absence of the 1965 Voting Rights Act AU - Keith Parker AU - Dora Tilles AU - Clifton Brown AU - Dawn Brown McGlotten Y1 - 2021/09/27 PY - 2021 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.11 DO - 10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.11 T2 - International Journal of Education, Culture and Society JF - International Journal of Education, Culture and Society JO - International Journal of Education, Culture and Society SP - 159 EP - 166 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2575-3363 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.11 AB - In June 2013, the Supreme Court ruled in Shelby County v. Holder that states with a history of racial discrimination no longer needed to approve proposed changes to their voting procedures with the federal government. The court ruled that the coverage formula was based on 40-year-old data that was not applicable to current needs. Thus the 2016 presidential election was the first in 50 years without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. The objective of this paper is to examine the changes in voter turnout between the 2012 and the 2016 national elections due to the changes in the Voting Rights Act. Using data from the voter file vendor Catalist and information from the U.S. Census Bureau, this paper examined changes in turnout rates for different racial/ethnic groups between 2012 and 2016. The findings indicated (1) African American turnout declined substantially; (2) white turnout increased considerably; (3) Latino American turnout increased, and (4) in the key swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, fluctuations in voter participation were especially strong. Voter enthusiasm and perceived voter suppression efforts had a huge impact on voter turnout. In addition, not being able to identify with candidates or properly researching candidates’ political goals hampered the desire to vote, especially in Black Americans. VL - 6 IS - 5 ER -
Email: