POLS 250 – 9 November 2021

V.O. Key “The Size of the Southern Electorate”

The primary vote tends to exceed the general election vote in the South – and “an extremely small”
proportion of the possible voting electorate controls Democratic nominations.

Usually fewer than 30% of the possible electorate vote in Democratic primaries for governor (no
presidential primaries then). In 4 states, including VA and GA, it’s under 20%.

Ohioans outvote Southerners from 2-1 to 5-1!

[Comparative politics implications – 1) subnational variation in democracy is common, 2) theoretically

having the vote and actually using the vote are different things]

Not only North-South variation though – although that’s huge in this era of US history; significant intra-
South variation; even with their large not-voting Black populations voting rates in LA & MS are 3-1 or 2-1
higher than in VA. [Comparative implication here too]

“the peculiar Southern institution of (Black) disenfranchisement” – keep in mind this is written 85 years
after the Civil War! and the post-Civil War amendments!

[Do other countries have “peculiar institutions”?]

Presidential elections – there being no black voting plus no battle for electors in these states leads to
extremely low turnout rates.

Would they turn out without the Electoral College? Is turnout lower in non-competitive races
[yes, we see this comparatively]?

In 1948 election turnout rate was over twice as high in WV as in VA!

“The political South defines itself through its electoral inactivity”

“isolated principalities”, perhaps because of the “homogenization” of “persons of consequence” in these

societies – only they are of consequence because …

[What may matter in politics isn’t the country being homogenous or not – possibly focus on the elite –
any exceptions?]

only “streams of national politics” push these states even toward having dual political organizations

low participation, by custom or law, eliminates the opposition to the current regimes

limited legal participation builds custom of limited participation [important to keep in mind – both
institutions and culture matter, and they affect one another]

V.O. Key “Restrictions on Voting”

Know forms of disenfranchisement [and think through Comparative implications]

Poll tax; force and threat of force; punishing employers of Black people or any other white people who’d
assist them; literacy tests; taking away voting rights for those found guilty of crimes (including minor
ones); requiring registration (including several months before an election); private party action (the
white primary, legal in much of the South until the 1940s, some states fought to preserve it after that) –
keep in mind the Bill of Rights traditionally applied to national government, not private (and for a long
time not state government), action; the “grandfather clause” (those who had the vote before 1867, and
their descendants, were exempt from poll taxes, educational and property requirements, etc.)

Formal, uniform limitations were often opposed, given that they would disenfranchise (especially poor)
whites

Key argues the poll tax wasn’t central to disenfranchising Blacks – because they were being
disenfranchised by other means already (keep in mind the lack of quality schooling in much of the South
at this time – especially in many Black communities). But it did disenfranchise poor whites

Know conditions in which sets of people may be disenfranchised, including timing [and think through
Comparative implications]

Party change – when Republicans/Reconstruction ended, and later when any Populist threat subsided,
one-party rule both generally discouraged electoral participation and allowed for easy approval of
limitations the ruling party wanted

Texas example shows electoral competition (or lack of it) an important driver in enabling excluding
Blacks from voting. Black access collapsed after need to compete for the Black vote disappeared (there’d
been Populist vs. Democrat competition).

Lack of federal government protections (when Reconstruction ended and the Supreme Court cut the
legs out from under the post-Civil War amendments)

County-level elections officials had vast power to decide registration and voting conditions
(interpreting/applying tests, encouraging violence, etc.).