Disparate Racial Impacts of Shelby County v. Holder on Voter Turnout

Stephen B. Billings (), Noah Braun (), Daniel Jones and Ying Shi
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Stephen B. Billings: University of Colorado, Boulder
Noah Braun: University of Pittsburgh

No 15829, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: 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. These effects are concentrated in counties with larger Black and Hispanic populations, consistent with strategic targeting of voter suppression.

Keywords: political participation; Voting Rights Act (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 J15 K16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2022-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-pol and nep-ure
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Published - published in: Journal of Public Economics, 2024, 230, 105047

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