TY - JOUR
T1 - Disparate racial impacts of Shelby County v. Holder on voter turnout
AU - Billings, Stephen B.
AU - Braun, Noah
AU - Jones, Daniel B.
AU - Shi, Ying
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2024/2
Y1 - 2024/2
N2 - In Shelby County v. Holder (2013), the Supreme Court struck down a core provision of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) that enabled federal electoral oversight in select jurisdictions. We study whether this decision disproportionately impacted ballot access for Black and Hispanic registered voters. We use a rich dataset on voter behavior for the universe of registered voters combined with Census block-level sociodemographic attributes to document a decrease in turnout for Black, relative to white, individuals. We observe suggestive but less robust evidence of decreases in Hispanic turnout. These effects are concentrated in counties with larger Black and Hispanic populations, consistent with strategic targeting of voter suppression.
AB - In Shelby County v. Holder (2013), the Supreme Court struck down a core provision of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) that enabled federal electoral oversight in select jurisdictions. We study whether this decision disproportionately impacted ballot access for Black and Hispanic registered voters. We use a rich dataset on voter behavior for the universe of registered voters combined with Census block-level sociodemographic attributes to document a decrease in turnout for Black, relative to white, individuals. We observe suggestive but less robust evidence of decreases in Hispanic turnout. These effects are concentrated in counties with larger Black and Hispanic populations, consistent with strategic targeting of voter suppression.
KW - Political participation
KW - Voting Rights Act
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85181555592&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85181555592&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2023.105047
DO - 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2023.105047
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85181555592
SN - 0047-2727
VL - 230
JO - Journal of Public Economics
JF - Journal of Public Economics
M1 - 105047
ER -