Voting Rights, Voter Turnout, and Realignment

Abstract

Numerous studies have examined the impact of the expansion of voting rights that occurred in the South with the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. It has been demonstrated that black voter registration and black voting increased and that in turn black office holding increased (Rodgers and Bullock, 1972: 15-54).1 Moreover, the responsiveness of white elected officials representing heavily black districts may also have increased, although the relationship between the size of the black constituency and responsiveness does not appear to be consistently linear. William Keech has suggested that the relationship may be linear with responsiveness increasing with a larger black vote up to approximately 30% black, but with little increase in responsiveness between 30% and majority control (Keech, 1968: 101). Other studies have reported a curvilinear relationship. For instance, Bullock (1981: 679), in an analysis of congressional roll call voting, found that representatives of districts that were 26% to 35% black were