[EL] poverty discussion in voting rights cases

[Carl Klarner]

Hi All,

Two "facts" relevant to this discussion interesting to look at side by side.

If you look at Census data for state legislative districts, the
proportion of state legislative districts that are "majority poor" is
very small (I'm not digging out my notes, but if someone asks, I
will).

Public opinion studies generally find a large break when you pass
about the 33rd percentile of income about policies that concern low
income people the most, such as welfare policy (see Chris Wlezian's
work).

I have no legal opinion about any of this, I'm just offering the above
to the discussion.

Carl

On Tue, Mar 20, 2018 at 4:02 PM, Hess, Doug <HESSDOUG at grinnell.edu> wrote:
> In skimming the text of the ACLU Sumter County order, link below, the discussion of poverty and socio-economic status in the order reminded of a question I've had for some time.
>
> What is (or was) the reason for drawing attention to inequalities in a community or the connection between poverty and voting rights?
>
> Is it that a community with such disparity implies that policies are not addressing communities fairly which implies that the election system does not represent interests?
>
> Or is it that such disparity implies a community could be susceptible to suppression (an argument in the 1960s in the South was that poverty makes political participation more risky) and therefore election design needs closer scrutiny, so to speak?
>
> At the end of the first section, the order concludes that "[t]hese disparities result in decreased political participation." But that doesn't explain the discussion on inequality. I.e., why don't they look at the disparity in participation directly?
>
> Thanks for any background on this.
>
> https://www.acluga.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/aclu-sumter-county-court-order-on-preliminary-injunction-2018.pdf
>
> Douglas R Hess
> Assistant Professor of Political Science
> Grinnell College
> 1210 Park Street, Carnegie Hall #309
> Grinnell, IA 50112
> phone: 641-269-4383
>
> http://www.douglasrhess.com
>
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-- 
Dr. Carl Klarner

Academic / Political Consultant

Department of Political Science

University of Florida, Gainesville

Klarnerpolitics.com

Former Associate Professor of Political Science

Carl.Klarner at gmail.com

Cell: 812-514-9060