Making the List: Database Matching and Verification Processes for Voter Registration

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Levitt ◽  
Wendy R. Weiser ◽  
Ana yadhira Muñoz
Keyword(s):  
Voter Registration

Courting the Youth Vote in 2008: The Obama Effect

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsey C Bohl
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Elections ◽  
Voter Registration ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The Past ◽  
Several Variables ◽  
High Turnout ◽  
Short And Long Term ◽  
Use Of The Internet ◽  
Youth Vote

This paper examines a few of the numerous factors that may have led to increased youth turnout in 2008 Election. First, theories of voter behavior and turnout are related to courting the youth vote. Several variables that are perceived to affect youth turnout such as party polarization, perceived candidate difference, voter registration, effective campaigning and mobilization, and use of the Internet, are examined. Over the past 40 years, presidential elections have failed to engage the majority of young citizens (ages 18-29) to the point that they became inclined to participate. This trend began to reverse starting in 2000 Election and the youth turnout reached its peak in 2008. While both short and long-term factors played a significant role in recent elections, high turnout among youth voters in 2008 can be largely attributed to the Obama candidacy and campaign, which mobilized young citizens in unprecedented ways.

The Three-Legged Stool of Voter Engagement

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-56
Author(s):  
Adelaide K. Sandler ◽  
Mary E. Hylton ◽  
Jason Ostrander ◽  
Tanya R. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Voter Registration ◽  
Elected Officials ◽  
Allocation Of Resources ◽  
Community Members ◽  
The Past ◽  
Voting Decisions

Disparities in voter turnout have increased significantly over the past four decades. Members of historically oppressed groups, those who are low-income, and or who have lower levels of education vote at significantly lower rates than white, wealthy and or more educated community members. These disparities correlate directly to political power and the eventual allocation of resources by elected officials. Therefore, eliminating these disparities through targeted voter engagement with client groups is particularly important for the profession of social work. This article describes the conceptualization of voter engagement as a three-legged stool, consisting of voter registration, regular voting, and basing voting decisions on self-interest.Without attention to all three legs, the potential for generating political power collapses, resulting in minimal influence on elected officials.

Suppressing Black Votes: A Historical Case Study of Voting Restrictions in Louisiana

2021 ◽  
Vol 115 (2) ◽  
pp. 694-700
Author(s):  
LUKE KEELE ◽  
WILLIAM CUBBISON ◽  
ISMAIL WHITE
Keyword(s):  
Time Series Data ◽  
Voter Registration ◽  
Series Data ◽  
Historical Case Study ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
Southern States ◽  
Local Officials ◽  
Data Source ◽  
Eligibility Requirements ◽  
State Restrictions

Southern states have used a variety of methods to disenfranchise African American voters. Empirical data on the effectiveness of these measures is rare. We present a unique data source from Louisiana that allows us to empirically document voter registration rates from the end of Reconstruction to the present. Using basic time series data, we document how voter registration rates changed over time in response to state restrictions. We then conduct a second analysis, which focuses on Louisiana’s use of the Understanding Clause to reduce voter registration among Blacks. We show that in parishes that used the Understanding Clause, Black registration rates dropped by nearly 30 percentage points, with little effect on white registration. The findings of this paper have important implications for understanding the potential for discrimination in the enforcement of modern, ostensibly nonracial, voter eligibility requirements, such as voter ID laws, which grant substantial discretion to local officials in determining voter eligibility.

scholarly journals Improving Ecological Inference by Predicting Individual Ethnicity from Voter Registration Records

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kosuke Imai ◽  
Kabir Khanna
Keyword(s):  
Mean Squared Error ◽  
False Positive Rate ◽  
True Positive Rate ◽  
Voter Registration ◽  
Racial Groups ◽  
Ecological Inference ◽  
Inference Problem ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Positive Rate ◽  
Election Results

In both political behavior research and voting rights litigation, turnout and vote choice for different racial groups are often inferred using aggregate election results and racial composition. Over the past several decades, many statistical methods have been proposed to address this ecological inference problem. We propose an alternative method to reduce aggregation bias by predicting individual-level ethnicity from voter registration records. Building on the existing methodological literature, we use Bayes's rule to combine the Census Bureau's Surname List with various information from geocoded voter registration records. We evaluate the performance of the proposed methodology using approximately nine million voter registration records from Florida, where self-reported ethnicity is available. We find that it is possible to reduce the false positive rate among Black and Latino voters to 6% and 3%, respectively, while maintaining the true positive rate above 80%. Moreover, we use our predictions to estimate turnout by race and find that our estimates yields substantially less amounts of bias and root mean squared error than standard ecological inference estimates. We provide open-source software to implement the proposed methodology.

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