The Voting Rights Act at 50: New Study Released on Race and Voting
A new study from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, 50 Years of the Voting Rights Act: The State of Race in Politics, looks at the impact of race in voting since the passage of the Voting Rights Act.
From the Joint Center:
Key findings:
- The black/white racial gap in voter turnout has decreased dramatically in presidential elections since 1965.
- Local election turnout is generally less than half of presidential general election turnout. As overall turnout declines in local elections, the electorate may become less diverse.
- Turnout rates among both Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans in presidential elections remain 15 to 20 points below white Americans.
- Since 1960, the party identification and partisan voting patterns of blacks and whites have become sharply divided.
- In urban local elections, race is a more decisive factor than income, education, political ideology, religion, sexual orientation, age, gender, and political ideology.
- Based on available data from 1972 to 2010, blacks were the least advantaged group in America in terms of policy outcomes.
- Since 1965, the number of elected officials of color has grown enormously, but people of color remain underrepresented in elected office.
Read the study in its entirety here.
Photo: Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies