On July 31, 2006, President George W. Bush signed the Voting Rights Act (VRA)reauthorization, extending the act for 25 years. In conjunction with the congressional hearings on the reauthorization of section 5 of the Voting Rights Act this spring, the Project on Fair Representation at the American Enterprise Institute, led by National Research Initiative visiting fellow Edward Blum, commissioned two social scientists to gather data on the state of minority participation in the election process in the jurisdictions covered by the statute.
Section 5 of the VRA requires all of nine states and parts of seven others to seek permission--or, "preclearance"--from the United States Attorney General or from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia before any election practices or procedures can be changed. The states fully covered by section 5 are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia.
The authors of these studies, Professor Keith Gaddie of the University of Oklahoma and Professor Charles Bullock of the University of Georgia, have produced extensive voting behavior scholarship in addition to acting as expert witnesses in dozens of voting rights cases throughout the country.
These studies analyze a variety of election criteria including black and Hispanic voter registration rates, black and Hispanic election turnout rates, success and failure of black and Hispanic candidates, white cross-over support for minority candidates, and racial polarization levels using three different methodologies. Although the trends in minority election participation vary from state to state, the data suggest that the crisis of black voter disenfranchisement in the Deep South and elsewhere that existed in 1965 is over.
Assessment of Voting Rights Progress in Jurisdictions Covered by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (PDF)
Including an executive summary of the Bullock-Gaddie reports
by Edward Blum and Lauren Campbell
An addendum to the state studies (PDF)
The Impact of Using Non-Hispanic White Data
By Ronald Keith Gaddie and Charles S. Bullock
A compilation of all the VRA studies material (PDF)
Includes the Blum/Campbell executive summary, all of the Bullock/Gaddie state studies, and the addendum on the impact of non-Hispanic white data
