Voters cast their ballots in North Charleston, SC, on October 16, 2020. A new study says the turnout gap between white and non-white voters in the US is growing fastest in jurisdictions that have been stripped of federal election protections by a Supreme Court decision.
Logan Cyrus/AFP via Getty Images
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Logan Cyrus/AFP via Getty Images
Voters cast their ballots in North Charleston, SC, on October 16, 2020. A new study says the turnout gap between white and non-white voters in the US is growing fastest in jurisdictions that have been stripped of federal election protections by a Supreme Court decision.
Logan Cyrus/AFP via Getty Images
The voter turnout gap between white and non-white voters in America is growing fastest In jurisdictions that were stripped of election protections during the federal civil rights era a decade ago, according to a new study.
Protections in Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 require certain states and localities with a history of election discrimination to obtain federal approval before they can take any action. any changes to its election laws or procedures.
Most recently, it covered nine states, mostly in the South, as well as some counties and towns in several other states.
In 2013, the Supreme Court effectively gutted Part 5 in Shelby County v. Holder — clears the way for states to pass laws on measures like redistricting, changing polling places and adding restrictive voter ID requirements without federal review.
ONE new research by the Brennan Center for Justice, a think tank that advocates for expanding voting access, measured the impact of Shelby County decided from 2012 to 2022.
Researchers looked at nearly a billion voter records and compared the rates at which white and non-white Americans voted in elections. The study refers to the difference between white voters and other groups as the “turnout gap.”
The gap can be huge: In the three elections between 2018 and 2022, 43% of eligible white voters voted each time, while that number for Black voters was 27%, 21% among Asian American voters and 19% among Hispanic voters, according to Pew Research Center.
Understanding the impact of any election law can be difficult because a number of factors can change voter turnout, including how competitive the election is and who is on the ballot .
And across America, the voting gap between white and non-white voters is widening for a variety of reasons.
But the think tank found that the voter turnout gap is growing faster in formerly Section 5 places, and it’s growing fastest between white and black voters in those areas.
“What we see is that these jurisdictions fall into a pattern of adopting laws and policies that make voting difficult,” said Kareem Crayton, senior director at the center for voting rights and representation. So it’s difficult for people of color.”
IN Shelby CountyThe Supreme Court ruled that protections against voting discrimination were outdated
In 2008, Ernest Montgomerya Black city council member in Shelby County, Ala., failed in his bid for re-election after his district was redrawn to include fewer Black voters.
That is considered discrimination under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. So the city was ordered to draw a new map and conduct another election, which Montgomery won.
In response, leaders in Shelby County filed a federal lawsuit, claiming Section 5 is outdated and unconstitutional. In 2013, the Supreme Court sided with Shelby County in a narrow 5-4 vote.
In his majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts write that “the original conditions that justified these measures no longer characterize voting in covered jurisdictions.”
But Crayton argues that Roberts’ description is not only inaccurate but also has major implications for voting access.
“Unfortunately, that really created a series of terrible laws and the brunt of those laws fell on voters of color,” Crayton said.
According to the Brennan Center, states that previously had full or partial protection under Section 5 passed at least 29 rules has made voting more difficult over the past decade.
Crayton added that it’s also difficult to track all the changes made to election laws at the state and local level because officials are no longer required to submit those changes to the federal government.
Many ballots were not cast by eligible voters because Shelby County decision, study says
Jurisdictions Section 5 includes the entire states of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia, as well as certain areas of California, Florida, Michigan, New York, North Carolina and South Dakota.
The study compared the turnout gap between white and non-white voters in areas that were once Section 5 with estimates of the turnout gap in places that were never Section 5 but had different characteristics. similar demographic and socioeconomic scores.
It found that between 2012 and 2022, the turnout gap between white and nonwhite voters in counties once covered by Section 5 increased by 9 percentage points, while the gap in The district is not within the scope of the 5-point increase.
Similarly, the gap between white voters and single black voters in Section 5 areas has increased 11 points, while the gap in comparable uninsured areas has increased 6 points since the ruling of the Supreme Court.
“This may not seem like a lot in percentage terms, but that number represents hundreds of thousands of voters who over time are left out of our political process because those ballots are not counted,” Crayton said. elected”.
According to research, the effects of Shelby County decided to further widen the voting gap. The turnout gap between previously sheltered and uncovered areas in 2022 was larger than in any election since the ruling, the researchers said.
