The Intersection of Redistricting, Race, and Participation

The drawing of congressional district lines can significantly reduce political participation in U.S. House elections, according to recent work. But such studies have failed to explain which citizens' voting rates are most susceptible to the dislocating effects of redistricting and whether the f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAmerican journal of political science Vol. 56; no. 1; pp. 115 - 130
Main Authors Hayes, Danny, McKee, Seth C.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Malden, USA Blackwell Publishing Inc 01.01.2012
Wiley Subscription Services
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Subjects
African Americans
Citizens
Congressional districts
Congressional elections
Constituencies
Election districts
Elections
Ethnicity
Incumbents
Legislative Districts
Legislatures
Participation
Political behavior
Political candidates
Political Participation
Political science
Redistricting
State elections
U.S.A
Voter behavior
Voters
Voting
Voting behaviour
Voting precincts
Voting turnout
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Summary:The drawing of congressional district lines can significantly reduce political participation in U.S. House elections, according to recent work. But such studies have failed to explain which citizens' voting rates are most susceptible to the dislocating effects of redistricting and whether the findings are generalizable to a variety of political contexts. Building on this nascent literature and work on back political participation, we show that redistricting's negative effects on participation—measured by voter roll-off in U.S. House elections—are generally strongest among African Americans, but that black voters can be mobilized when they are redrawn into a black representative's congressional district. Our findings, based on data from 11 postredistricting elections in five states from 1992 through 2006, both expand the empirical scope of previous work and suggest that redistricting plays a previously hidden role in affecting black participation in congressional contests.
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http://nw08.american.edu/~dhayes/index.htm
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Authors' names appear in alphabetical order. An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2009 meeting of the American Political Science Association. We thank Matt Cleary, Michael Martinez, Marc Hendershot, Dan Smith, seminar participants at the University of Florida, several anonymous referees, and the editor for helpful comments. Data are available at
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ISSN:0092-5853
1540-5907
DOI:10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00546.x