The Voting Rights Act & Special Districts
Association for Budgeting & Financial Management Conference
Abstract
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) prohibits the denial or attenuation of the right to vote based on race or color. The VRA directly led to large increases in voter registration rates among Black voters in southern states. This was achieved in two ways. First, the VRA banned literacy tests, and second, the VRA increased federal oversight of some states (and counties) over all manner of voting-related procedures, commonly known as preclearance. The latter is the focus of this analysis. Preclearance seeks to limit the introduction of new discriminatory state laws related to elections by enhancing federal oversight of such changes. It requires prior approval of such changes before states can proceed with them. Preclearance covers many areas that are election-related or election adjacent. Of particular interest for this analysis is the coverage of incorporation, changes in form of government, consolidation or division of local political units, or changes in referendum requirements. Covered under these procedures is the creation, dissolution, or alteration of special districts. As Burns (1994) notes, the preclearance process makes it more difficult to create special districts. Special districts are typically easier to create than municipalities—they are often relieved of onerous requirements that increase collective action problems that make creating municipalities more difficult. Preclearance oversight changes the incentives for creating a special district. This manuscript uses data from the Census of Governments to implement a difference in differences analysis of the influence of preclearance on the creation of special districts at the county level. The formula-based 1975 expansion of the VRA creates a treatment group of 283 counties across nine states subject to preclearance oversight. Consistent with Burns’ more limited study, it is expected that being covered by preclearance will reduce the creation rate of special districts because it imposes new restrictions on a previously less restrictive process.
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