Ohio's Racial Discrimination and the Responsibility to Restore a New Voting Rights Act of 1965

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the impact of recent limitations by Ohio legislators to early in-person voting periods on minority voters’ ability to turnout in 2014. Based on the heightened scrutiny of voting rights throughout the United States since Shelby v. Holder in 2013 and the removal of preclearance by the Supreme Court, I argue that a new coverage formula is needed to protect minority voters’ ability to reach the polls. By using Ohio as a case study of a state not previously covered by preclearance, this study hypothesizes that limitations to early voting schedules in Ohio before the 2014 election limited African American voters’ ability to turnout, both overall and early in-person. Initially, linear regression models illustrate that both overall and early in-person turnout for African Americans decreased in 2014 relative to 2010 (where voting schedules were not limited). Subsequently, another set of linear regression models indicates the impact of civic engagement groups’ efforts to influence low-income, African American voters’ turnout. The results suggest that while the density of African Americans in a census block does not especially affect overall turnout, minority voters in 2010 exposed to civic engagement groups were more likely to turnout than those unexposed, and more likely to turnout than all minority voters in 2014. These results indicate that had Ohio been covered by preclearance, minority voters would have been more similarly situated to majority voters, demonstrating the need for an updated coverage formula that represents current racial voting conditions.