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Examining the Causal Impact of the Voting Rights Act Language Minority Provisions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2016

Bernard L. Fraga  and
Julie Lee Merseth
Bernard L. Fraga*
Affiliation:
Indiana University
Julie Lee Merseth*
Affiliation:
Northwestern University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Bernard L. Fraga, Department of Political Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405. E-mail: bfraga@indiana.edu; and Julie Lee Merseth, Department of Political Science, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208. E-mail: jmerseth@northwestern.edu.
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Bernard L. Fraga, Department of Political Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405. E-mail: bfraga@indiana.edu; and Julie Lee Merseth, Department of Political Science, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208. E-mail: jmerseth@northwestern.edu.
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Abstract

The following study investigates the causal impact of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) language minority provisions, which mandate multilingual election assistance if certain population thresholds are met. While lower rates of Latino and Asian American political participation are often attributed to language barriers, scholars have yet to establish a direct impact of the provisions on electoral behavior. Building off of previous state- and county-level analyses, we leverage an individual-level voter file database to focus on participation by Latino and Asian American citizens in 1,465 counties and municipalities nationwide. Utilizing a regression discontinuity design, we examine rates of voter registration and turnout in the 2012 election, comparing individual participation rates in jurisdictions just above and just below the threshold for coverage. Our analysis attributes a significant increase in Latino voter registration and Asian American turnout to coverage under the VRA.

Keywords

voter turnoutvoter registrationvoting rights actlanguage policybilingual ballotsLatino politicsAsian American politics

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , March 2016 , pp. 31 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © The Race, Ethnicity, and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2016 

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