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Title: Valuing the Vote: The Redistribution of Voting Rights and State Funds Following the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Citation Type: Working Paper

Publication Year: 2012

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Abstract: The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) has been called one of the most effective pieces of civil rights legislation in US history, having generated dramatic increases in black voter registration and black voter turnout across the South. We show that the expansion of black voting rights in some southern states brought about by one requirement of the VRA the elimination of literacy tests at voter registration was accompanied by a shift in the distribution of state aid toward localities with higher proportions of black resldents, who held newfound power to affect the reelection of state officials, a finding that is consistent with models of distributve politics. Our estimates imply an elasticity of state transfers to counties with respect to turnout in presidential elections - the closest available measure of enfranchisement - of roughly one.

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Authors: Washington, Ebonya L.; Cascio, Elizabeth U.

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Publication Number: 17776

Institution: National Bureau of Economic Research

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Publisher Location: Cambridge, MA

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

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