After court weakened Voting Rights Act, minority voting power dropped

Since the Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, minority voter underrepresentation has intensified-especially in places where Black, Asian, and Latino voters are on the brink of being electoral majorities, according to a new Berkeley Haas study. The study found sharp drops in minority voter registration and representation in cities that had new freedom to change their voting rules following the Shelby County v. Holder decision, which effectively lifted -preclearance- rules requiring federal approval for election changes in states and counties with a history of voter discrimination. This suggests organized and concerted efforts to limit minorities- voting power, says co-author Francesco Trebbi, professor of business and public policy at the Haas School of Business. -Something is deeply skewed in terms of the electoral playing field here, and it-s surgical,- Trebbi says. -If you just look overall, everything may look okay. But if you dig deeper and look at the areas where minority voting share is on the brink of being pivotal, you see that something bad is happening. "Something is deeply skewed in terms of the electoral playing field here, and it-s surgical.” -Francesco Trebbi Along with co-author Federico Ricca, a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia, Trebbi used U.S. Census data to analyze patterns of minority representation and voter registration in more than 7,600 cities, paying particular attention to how these patterns shifted in areas that had been covered by preclearance rules.