Transcript The Voting Rights Act and the Protection of Mexican

The Voting Rights Act and
the Protection of Mexican
American Electoral
Participation
Mexican Americans and Politics
Lecture 10
February 9, 2006
Participation Not Simply the
Result of Individual Initiative
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Institutions create barriers
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Few mass democracies with full, equal participation exist
Not all barriers are malicious
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Should 16 and 17 year olds vote? How about 6 and 7 year olds?
Electoral participation
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States set limits on voting
Reasonable people can disagree on appropriate limits
Barriers established primarily in the South to restrict
Black voting (and less so in the Southwest to limit
Mexican American voting) can only be seen as racially
motivated
Voting in the United States: State
Control to Federal Oversight
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Constitution: States regulate voting
“The right of citizens of the United States to
vote shall not be denied or abridged by the
United States or any state on account of
race, color, or previous condition of
servitude”
–
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15th Amendment to the Constitution
Nevertheless, states regulated voting with
no federal oversight until 1965
Provisions of the 1965 VRA
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Applied to states in the South with gaps between
white and black voter registration
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Prohibition of literacy tests
Federal supervision of registration/voting
Federal monitors could register voters
Pre-clearance or rule/districting changes
Judicial oversight transferred to federal court for the D.C.
circuit
Prohibition on “devices” to dilute Black votes
Not part of VRA – 24th Amendment to the
Constitution (1964) eliminates poll tax
Impact
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Immediate and overwhelming
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Black voter participation increases from a few
percent in some states to 60 percent almost
overnight
Blacks run for office and form a political party
(that quickly dissolves)
White leaders find new strategies to limit the
impact of black votes
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Most important – at-large districting schemes
Extension to Mexican Americans
and Other Latinos (1975)
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Little debate about Mexican American or
Latino needs
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What discussion there was asserted similarities to
Blacks
No discussion of whether Mexican American
experiences applied to other Latinos
1975 Extension
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Protections extended to Blacks in 1965 extended
to “language minorities”
One new provision – bilingual voting materials
Consequences
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Legal
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Federal monitoring of Latino registration and voting
Legal/structural linkage of Mexican American and other
Latino voting rights
Political
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Expansion in the number of Mexican American and other
Latino officeholders,
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But new officeholders haven’t kept up with population growth
Increase in Latino share of national vote, but no big
increase in share of eligible Latinos voting
Voting, By Group, 19642004
Latino U.S.
citizens
White U.S.
citizens
Black U.S.
citizens
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
2004
2000
1996
1992
1988
1984
1980
1976
1972
1968
1964
0
Before 1980,
turnout as a
share of all
adults, not
U.S. citizen
adults
Focus of VRA Shifted After
1965, Particularly in 1982
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1965 Remove barriers to Black participation
1970s Ensure that jurisdictions do not dilute the
effect of minority voting
1975 Remove language as a barrier to
participation
1982 Ensure that districts are drawn in areas of
Black, Latino, Asian American or Native American
concentration that will elect minority officeholders
Shift from Focus on
Participation to Focus on
Representation
Both are important, but Mexican
Americans need incentives to
participation
Latino Elected Officials,
1973-2004
5000
Six states
4000
Nationally
3000
2000
1000
0
1973
1984
1996
2004
1973-2004
change,
+279%,
overall
population
growth
+291%
Long Term Impact of the
VRA
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African American vote
increased dramatically
Descriptive representation
up considerably
New immigrants from
covered groups immediately
protected
Foundation of white
partisan shift and national
Republican dominance after
1968
What Can Be Done to Return Focus
to Mexican American/Latino
Mobilization?
1.
2.
3.
Non-citizen voting as a path to
citizenship
Election day voter registration
Voting rights in U.S. national elections
for residents of Puerto Rico
VRA Up for Renewal in
2007
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Congressional debate will not focus on how to
reduce barriers to Mexican American/Latino voting
Instead:
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Question of constitutionality of majority-minority districts
Burden placed on jurisdictions by bilingual election
material requirement
Whether the federal intervention in what was traditionally
a state responsibility is still needed
The Supreme Court that considers the
constitutionality of whatever Congress passes will be
quite different than the Court in 1966 or 1983
For Next Time
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What parts of California supported
Proposition 187?
Why?