"Practice, or Procedure:" An Analysis of the Impact of Georgia's Voter Registration Procedures on the Composition of the Electorate, 2013-2016 Pubblico

Abstract

The 1965 Voting Rights Act prohibited practices and procedures that discriminated basis of race, color, or membership in one of the outlined language minority groups. The 2013 Shelby County v. Holder Supreme Court decision nullified Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, eliminating federal preclearance in places that had a history of voter suppression. In 2016 the Georgia Secretary of State's office was sued for utilizing a registration process that rejected minority applicants at disproportionate levels. This study analyzes the entire cancelled voter data set from 2013-2016 that was produced by the Secretary of State's office during the litigation. I find that additional cancellation reasons in the data set, beyond the one at the center of the suit, "Not Verified," contain skewed racial distributions but that a county having a majority white elections board has no significant correlation with the rate of minority rejection.

Table of Contents

Introduction……………………………………………………………………...….….1

Chapter 1: Theory.………..…………………………………………………………..5

Ballot Casting v. Registration Reforms…………………………………...……….............5

Procedure as a tool for minority disenfranchisement--past and present.…...15

Chapter 2: Reasons for Rejection--an Individual Analysis…..….…….25

Introduction………………………………………………………………............................……25

Literature Review…………………………………………………………......................……...27

Hypothesis………………………………………………………………………………………………….…..29

Source of the Data………………………………………………………………………….……………..30

Process of Voter Registration in Georgia……………………………..………………………..31

Data and Methods…………………………………………………………………………………….……..34

Findings……………………………………………………………………….…………………….…………….42

Analysis and Conclusion……………………………………………………………..……………………52

Chapter 3: Elections Boards and Minority Rejection--County-Level Analysis…...55

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………55

Literature Review………………………….…………………………………………………….…………..57

Hypothesis………………………………………………………………………………………………………..60

Data and Methods…...…………………………...……............................................60

Findings…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….68

Appointment Process……………………………………………………………………………………….73

Interviews…………………………………………………………...……………………………….………...75

Selecting Counties.………………………………………………………………………..…………………77

Findings………….....................................................................................81

Fulton & Gwinnett…………………………………………………………………….………………….....81

Troup & Thomas……………………………………………………………………...………………………84

Analysis and Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………....86

Conclusion……………………………………………………….………………………91

Findings…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….91

Discussion ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….91

Appendix………………………………………………………………………………...95

References……………………………………………………………………………...103

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Political Science
Degree	BA
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Political Science, General
Parola chiave	Registration Procedure Voter Registration Minority Disenfranchisement
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Gillespie, Andra, Emory University
Committee Members	Francis-Tan, Andrew, Emory University Owens, Michael Leo, Emory University

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