Download or read book Addressing Minority Vote Dilution Through State Voting Rights Acts written by Paige A. Epstein and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Passed largely to address the problem of vote dilution and racially polarized voting, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) bans racial discrimination in voting practices by federal, state, and local governments. While the VRA has been successful in many respects, several large gaps remain. In an effort to narrow some of the gaps left by the federal VRA, four states have enacted or proposed individual state-VRAs or functional equivalents (herein referred to as individual state VRAs). In this paper, I seek to explore how these states have attempted to use individual VRAs - and how successful they have been - in closing the gaps in coverage existing under the federal VRA. For each of the four enacted or proposed VRAs, I explore the background of the legislation, followed by an analysis of how the legislation operates. For California, Illinois, and Florida (the three states with enacted individual state VRAs) I then examine how successful the legislation has been in increasing minority representation, and how it can be strengthened to further the state's goals. Since Washington's VRA has yet to become law, I explore the background, followed by an analysis of the proposed legislation. I conclude by assessing which individual state VRAs - or aspects thereof - are best suited to serve as models for the forty-six other states without such legislation. I find that all four state VRAs are ultimately successful insofar as they expand protection against minority vote dilution beyond that which is afforded to minority voters under the federal VRA. However, the level of success varies by state plan.
Download or read book Minority Representation and the Quest for Voting Equality written by Bernard Grofman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, the right of minorities to register and vote was largely secured. It was soon discovered, however, that minority voting did not guarantee the election of minorities or minority-preferred candidates. Indeed, efforts by states and localities in the second half of the 1960s were aimed at denying any substantial minority representation to go along with the ability to cast ballots. Eventually congressional amendments to the Act along with the Supreme Court opinion in Thornburg v. Gingles (1986) have led to efforts to eliminate electoral laws that have the effect of diluting the minority vote, whether or not they were enacted with discriminatory intent. Controversy still surrounds the matter of minority representation, however, because of the ambiguity of certain aspects of the law and because of problems in applying it to the largely single-member district context of the 1990s. This book is the most up-to-date treatment of voting rights law and the numerous controversies surrounding minority representation. The authors have extensive, firsthand experience in both the legal battles and the scholarly examination of these issues. Based on this wealth of experience, they describe the development of the law after 1965, discuss in detail the prevailing Supreme Court interpretation of the Voting Rights Act, and examine discrepancies in federal court interpretations of subsequent actions. They also introduce the reader to technical procedures for establishing standards of representation and measuring discrimination. In the final two chapters, they consider the application of voting rights law to districting in the 1990s along with the implications of recent developments for the future of representation in America.
Download or read book Controversies in Minority Voting written by Bernard N. Grofman and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Widely regarded as one of the most successful pieces of modern legislation, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 has transformed the nature of minority participation and representation in the United States. But with success came controversy as some scholars claim the Act has outlived its usefulness or been subverted in its aim. This volume brings together leading scholars to offer a twenty-five year perspective on the consequences of this landmark act. The Fifteenth Amendment, ratified in 1870, stated that the right of U.S. citizens to vote "shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or condition of previous servitude." The South, however, virtually ignored this right, disfranchising blacks through violence, intimidation, literacy tests, and poll taxes. The primary purpose of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was to break down these barriers to minority voting. Beginning with chapters covering the key provisions of the Act, the book discusses the way the Act has transformed American politics and looks at the role played by major civil rights groups in lobbying for extensions and amendments to it and in insuring that its provisions would be enforced.
Download or read book The Future of the Voting Rights Act written by Sharyn O’Halloran and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2006-09-21 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Voting Rights Act (VRA) stands among the great achievements of American democracy. Originally adopted in 1965, the Act extended full political citizenship to African-American voters in the United States nearly 100 years after the Fifteenth Amendment first gave them the vote. While Section 2 of the VRA is a nationwide, permanent ban on discriminatory election practices, Section 5, which is set to expire in 2007, targets only certain parts of the country, requiring that legislative bodies in these areas—mostly southern states with a history of discriminatory practices—get permission from the federal government before they can implement any change that affects voting. In The Future of the Voting Rights Act, David Epstein, Rodolfo de la Garza, Sharyn O'Halloran, and Richard Pildes bring together leading historians, political scientists, and legal scholars to assess the role Section 5 should play in America's future. The contributors offer varied perspectives on the debate. Samuel Issacharoff questions whether Section 5 remains necessary, citing the now substantial presence of blacks in legislative positions and the increasingly partisan enforcement of the law by the Department of Justice (DOJ). While David Epstein and Sharyn O'Halloran are concerned about political misuse of Section 5, they argue that it can only improve minority voting power—even with a partisan DOJ—and therefore continues to serve a valuable purpose. Other contributors argue that the achievements of Section 5 with respect to blacks should not obscure shortcomings in the protection of other groups. Laughlin McDonald argues that widespread and systematic voting discrimination against Native Americans requires that Section 5 protections be expanded to more counties in the west. Rodolfo de la Garza and Louis DeSipio point out that the growth of the Latino population in previously homogenous areas and the continued under-representation of Latinos in government call for an expanded Section 5 that accounts for changing demographics. As its expiration date approaches, it is vital to examine the role that Section 5 still plays in maintaining a healthy democracy. Combining historical perspective, legal scholarship, and the insight of the social sciences, The Future of the Voting Rights Act is a crucial read for anyone interested in one of this year's most important policy debates and in the future of civil rights in America.
Download or read book The Voting Rights Act of 1965 written by Kevin J. Coleman and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-01-02 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Voting Rights Act (VRA) was successfully challenged in a June 2013 case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder. The suit challenged the constitutionality of Sections 4 and 5 of the VRA, under which certain jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination in voting-mostly in the South-were required to "pre-clear" changes to the election process with the Justice Department (the U.S. Attorney General) or the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The preclearance provision (Section 5) was based on a formula (Section 4) that considered voting practices and patterns in 1964, 1968, or 1972. At issue in Shelby County was whether Congress exceeded its constitutional authority when it reauthorized the VRA in 2006-with the existing formula-thereby infringing on the rights of the states. In its ruling, the Court struck down Section 4 as outdated and not "grounded in current conditions." As a consequence, Section 5 is intact, but inoperable, unless or until Congress prescribes a new Section 4 formula.
Download or read book Voting Rights and Redistricting in the United States written by Mark E. Rush and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1998-10-30 with total page 586 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This up-to-date collection of essays addresses key elements of the law and politics of voting rights: the Supreme Court's jurisprudence, the impact of the Voting Rights Act, and the opportunities for enhanced minority representation posed by alternative electoral systems. This volume, comprised of contributions by leading legal and political science practitioners in the field of voting rights, will be a valuable resource to experienced researchers and newcomers to the field. It includes current assessments of the intricacies of the Supreme Court's decisions, current research on the impact of the the Voting Rights Act on the various minority groups it purports to assist, and critical analysis of the use of alternative electoral systems.
Download or read book Vote Dilution Minority Voting Rights and the Courts written by Stephen L. Wasby and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book America Votes written by Benjamin E. Griffith and published by American Bar Association. This book was released on 2008 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a snapshot of America's voting and electoral practices, problems, and most current issues. The book addresses a variety of fundamental areas concerning election law from a federal perspective such as the Help America Vote Act, lessons learned from the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, voter identification, and demographic and statistical experts in election litigation, and more. It is a useful guide for lawyers as well as law school professors, election officials, state and local government personnel, and election workers.
Download or read book Minority Vote Dilution written by Chandler Davidson and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although more Blacks are voting and running for public office, vote dilution still exists and weakens minority participation
Download or read book Perfecting the Voting Rights Act written by Seth M. Dawson and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Congressional and State Legislative Redistricting and Racial Vote Dilution Under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 written by Thomas M. Durbin and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The South After Shelby County written by Nicholas Stephanopoulos and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 69 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court dismantled one of the two pillars of the Voting Rights Act: Section 5, which had barred southern jurisdictions from changing their election laws without receiving prior federal approval. But the Court left standing the VRA's other pillar: Section 2, which prohibits racial discrimination in voting throughout the country. The burning question in the wake of Shelby County is what will happen to minority representation in the South now that Section 5 has been struck down but Section 2 lives on. This Article is the first to address this vital issue. The Article explores the Section 2 - Section 5 gap with respect to both the procedure and the substance of voting rights litigation. Procedurally, the provisions differ in their allocation of the burden of proof, their default before a decision on the merits is reached, and their proceedings' cost. These differences mean that numerous policies that previously would have been blocked now will go into effect. In the first substantive area to which the VRA applies, vote dilution, the provisions diverge as well. Section 2 does not extend to bizarrely shaped districts or districts whose minority populations are overly heterogeneous or below 50 per cent in size. In contrast, Section 5 applies to all of these district types. According to my empirical analysis, more than one-third of all formerly protected districts in the South now may be eliminated with legal impunity. In the other substantive area covered by the VRA, vote denial, the provisions again vary in their scope. A mere statistical disparity between minorities and whites does not violate Section 2, but it typically does suffice for preclearance to be denied. The rash of franchise restrictions enacted by southern states in the months since Shelby County shows how much this distinction matters. The Article also considers some of the ways in which the Section 2 - Section 5 gap could be closed. A new coverage formula could be adopted, thus restoring the prior regime. The VRA's 'bail in' provision could be amended to make it easier to subject jurisdictions to preclearance through litigation. Or Section 2 could be revised so that it resembles the stricken Section 5 more closely. Unfortunately, all of these steps face serious legal and political obstacles. A divided Congress is unlikely to pass legislation touching on sensitive issues of race and political power. Likewise, the Court may be reluctant to allow Shelby County to be circumvented. The Section 2 - Section 5 gap thus will probably persist for the foreseeable future.
Download or read book Voting Rights and Democracy written by Richard K. Scher and published by Wadsworth Publishing Company. This book was released on 1997 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Because the late 1990s have witnessed a revolution in voting rights unparalleled since the 1960s, there are many new questions and concerns regarding the law and politics of voting rights at the Congressional, state legislative, and local levels. This timely text deals with these issues, paying particular attention to minority issues and bringing together the skills and perspectives of a political scientist, a law professor and former state House speaker, and a professional political consultant and freelance journalist. Voting Rights and Democracy discusses the development over the last thirty years of new legal and political conceptions of voting rights, key decisions and moments, how the racial fairness standard became manifest, and what consequences flowed from these developments. The book concludes with a consideration of the implications of the new revolution in voting rights for American democracy, and provides alternatives to race-based districting.
Download or read book Minority Representation and the Voting Rights Act written by Melissa Nancy Bayer and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Quiet Revolution in the South written by Chandler Davidson and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1994-06-16 with total page 522 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work is the first systematic attempt to measure the impact of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, commonly regarded as the most effective civil rights legislation of the century. Marshaling a wealth of detailed evidence, the contributors to this volume show how blacks and Mexican Americans in the South, along with the Justice Department, have used the act and the U.S. Constitution to overcome the resistance of white officials to minority mobilization. The book tells the story of the black struggle for equal political participation in eight core southern states from the end of the Civil War to the 1980s--with special emphasis on the period since 1965. The contributors use a variety of quantitative methods to show how the act dramatically increased black registration and black and Mexican-American office holding. They also explain modern voting rights law as it pertains to minority citizens, discussing important legal cases and giving numerous examples of how the law is applied. Destined to become a standard source of information on the history of the Voting Rights Act, Quiet Revolution in the South has implications for the controversies that are sure to continue over the direction in which the voting rights of American ethnic minorities have evolved since the 1960s.
Download or read book Give Us the Ballot written by Ari Berman and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2015-08-04 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist, Nonfiction A New York Times Notable Book of 2015 A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2015 A Boston Globe Best Book of 2015 A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2015 An NPR Best Book of 2015 Countless books have been written about the civil rights movement, but far less attention has been paid to what happened after the dramatic passage of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in 1965 and the turbulent forces it unleashed. Give Us the Ballot tells this story for the first time. In this groundbreaking narrative history, Ari Berman charts both the transformation of American democracy under the VRA and the counterrevolution that has sought to limit voting rights, from 1965 to the present day. The act enfranchised millions of Americans and is widely regarded as the crowning achievement of the civil rights movement. And yet, fifty years later, we are still fighting heated battles over race, representation, and political power, with lawmakers devising new strategies to keep minorities out of the voting booth and with the Supreme Court declaring a key part of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional. Berman brings the struggle over voting rights to life through meticulous archival research, in-depth interviews with major figures in the debate, and incisive on-the-ground reporting. In vivid prose, he takes the reader from the demonstrations of the civil rights era to the halls of Congress to the chambers of the Supreme Court. At this important moment in history, Give Us the Ballot provides new insight into one of the most vital political and civil rights issues of our time.
Download or read book Reviving the Right to Vote written by Ellen D. Katz and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Losers in partisan districting battles have long challenged the resulting districting plans under seemingly unrelated legal doctrines. They have filed lawsuits alleging malapportionment, racial gerrymandering, and racial vote dilution, and they periodically prevail. Many election law scholars worry about these lawsuits, claiming that they needlessly "racialize" fundamentally political disputes, distort important legal doctrines designed for other purposes, and provide an inadequate remedy for a fundamentally distinct electoral problem. This Essay argues that the application of distinct doctrines to invalidate or diminish what are indisputably partisan gerrymanders is not necessarily problematic, and that the practice may well have salutary effects. The focus is on the Supreme Court's recent decision in LULAC v. Perry, the most recent example of the sort of judicial decision about which election law scholars fret. Unable to articulate any constitutional problem with a blatant partisan gerrymander in Texas, the Supreme Court found traction under the Voting Rights Act and held that a portion of that gerrymander diluted minority voting strength in the southwest portion of the State. A close reading of that holding as well as the Court's refusal to provide relief on a related claim brought by African-American voters in Fort Worth reveals that the race-based injuries presented in LULAC were hardly an ancillary distraction obscuring the core dispute, but instead, a predictable consequence of the gerrymander itself. As important, the surprising manner in which the Court resolved the VRA claims suggests a nascent conception of political harm experienced by all voters when system is rigged to block competition. In other words, LULAC suggests that Justice Kennedy may find within the Voting Rights Act itself the standard he has been seeking for managing claims of partisan gerrymandering.
