Full Citation

Title: The Effect of the Voting Rights Act on Enfranchisement: Evidence from North Carolina

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2018

ISBN:

ISSN: 0022-3816

DOI: 10.1086/697592

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act required covered jurisdictions—those deemed perniciously politically discriminatory to minorities—to preclear changes to their voting practices with the Department of Justice. By exploiting the use of a federally imposed threshold for how Section 5 coverage was applied in North Carolina, this article estimates the effect of coverage using a difference-in-differences design. This article finds that Section 5 coverage increased black voter registration by 14–19 percentage points, white registration by 10–13 percentage points, and overall voter turnout by 10–19 percentage points. Additional results for Democratic vote share suggest that some of this overall increase in turnout may have come from reactionary whites. This article finds that Section 5 coverage had a statistically and substantively meaningful effect on enfranchisement, although an effect consistent with the more modest of extant estimates in the literature.

Url: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/697592

Url: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/697592

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Fresh, Adriane

Periodical (Full): The Journal of Politics

Issue: 2

Volume: 80

Pages: 713-718

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Other, Race and Ethnicity

Countries: United States