Non-Voted Ballots and Discrimination in Florida

24 Pages Posted: 9 Jul 2001 Last revised: 25 Jul 2017

See all articles by John R. Lott

John R. Lott

Crime Prevention Research Center

Date Written: July 15, 2001

Abstract

The Majority Report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on the Presidential vote in Florida during the 2000 general election presents two types of empirical evidence that African-Americans were denied the right to vote. The report concluded that, "The Voting Rights Act prohibits both intentional discrimination and "results" discrimination. It is within the jurisdictional province of the Justice Department to pursue and a court of competent jurisdiction to decide whether the facts prove or disprove illegal discrimination under either standard." To reach their conclusion that discrimination had occurred, the majority examined the impact of race on spoiled (or non-voted) ballot rates as well as the impact of race on the exclusion from voter eligibility lists because of past felony criminal records. They relied on empirical work regarding non-voted ballots, relying solely from cross county regressions or correlations using data from 2000 alone. The evidence that African-Americans are erroneously placed on the ineligible list at higher rates than other racial groups is based upon a simple comparison of means. This paper evaluates the Majority Report and finds little evidence of any type of discrimination against African-Americans in voting.

JEL Classification: H0, J70, J78

Suggested Citation

Lott, John R., Non-Voted Ballots and Discrimination in Florida (July 15, 2001). Journal of Legal Studies, Vol. 32, No. 1, 2003, Yale Law & Economics Research Paper No. 256, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=276276 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.276276

John R. Lott (Contact Author)

Crime Prevention Research Center ( email )

PO Box 2293
1100 W Kent Ave
Missoula, MT 59801
United States

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