Voter Suppression Laws and the Racial Turnout Gap in America

Abstract

After Black men gained the right to vote with passage of the 15th Amendment in 1870, many US Southern states began implementing literacy tests, grandfather clauses, poll taxes, and other devices that made it difficult, if not impossible, for Blacks to vote. These devices kept many Southern Blacks from voting throughout the first half of the 20th century. In the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It suspended literacy tests and placed provisions for voting under federal supervision for seven Southern states with a history of voter discrimination. As a result, many more Blacks were registered to vote and the turnout gap between Black and white voters decreased substantially. However, the US Supreme Court ruled that seven Southern states subject to federal oversight of their elections was unconstitutional. As a result, numerous Southern states began passing restrictive voting rights requirements such as voting ID laws, the purging of voter rolls, etc., making it more difficult for Blacks to vote. For our study, we hypothesize that the voter turnout gap between Black and white voters would increase following the removal of federal oversight. Using data compiled from the US Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS), we examined Black and white voter turnout in previously “covered” jurisdictions in the 2012, 2016, and 2020 presidential elections. The findings of our study were consistent with our hypothesis, as our results demonstrate the growing divide between Black and white voter turnout.

Plain Language Summary

Voter Suppression Laws and the Racial Turnout Gap in America

This study examines the effect of voter identification laws implemented in the United States on the ability of Black voters to cast a ballot. Specifically, the authors examine the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and its impact on reducing the turnout gap between white and Black voters in the Southern United States. We analyze voter registration data for the 1964 presidential election (prior to passage of the Voting Rights Act), and the 1968 presidential election (the first presidential election after passage of the Voting Rights Act). At that point the voter turnout gap between Blacks and whites began to narrow. Additionally, we discuss the US Supreme Court case Shelby County v. Holder (2013), which removed federal oversight from the Southern states. We analyzed the 2016 presidential election (the first presidential election after removal of federal oversight) and our data showed the turnout gap between Black and white voters had reversed course and begun to widen. In our examination of the 2020 presidential election, we observed that the voter turnout gap between Blacks and whites continued to widen.