Shelby County v. Holder: Effect on Youth Turnout in Alabama
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Date
2022-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
The 2013 Shelby County v. Holder Supreme Court decision rendered Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 unconstitutional, thus significantly handicapping its authority. A direct result of Section 4's unconstitutional status has been the freeing from Section 5 preclearance of states with a history of egregious voter discrimination. In this paper I will be examining the effect a lack of federal preclearance has had on youth (18 -19 years old) voter turnout in Alabama. I use a difference-in-differences analysis to compare pre and post-Shelby County youth turnout in Alabama with pre and post-Shelby County youth turnout in Tennessee during the 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020 presidential general elections. I also conduct a border discontinuity difference-in-differences analysis using only the Alabama and Tennessee counties bordering each other. I find that Alabama's youth turnout significantly stalled relative to Tennessee's after 2013 in both the full state and border discontinuity analyses. While current literature on the effect that Shelby County has had on turnout in states previously subject to federal preclearance has found little change in minority turnout after 2013, there has been no work done on youth turnout. Because voting is a habit most effectively formed at a young eligible age, any decrease in youth turnout may have negative implications regarding turnout in future elections.
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Keywords
Voting Rights Act, Shelby County v. Holder, Voter turnout, Civil rights, Voting restrictions