TURNOUT IN MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS |
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| Authors: | Charles S. Bullock III |
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| Affiliation: | Richard Russell Professor of Political Science at the University of Georgia. He has written extensively on elec- toral districting, American government and the policy-making process, civil rights, and legislative behavior. Professor Bullock has appeared as an ex- pert witness before legislative committees and in court proceedings dealing with issues of redistricting and as a consultant to groups and governmental bodies involved with questions of electoral representation. |
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| Abstract: | Turnout in municipal elections is even lower than that in presidential elections. Yet the problem has been largely ignored by academicians. In recent years, there have been court challenges under the 1982 Voting Rights Act to majority vote and other than single-member districting provisions as requirements that are believed to dilute the political impact of minorities. The present analysis presents an overview of our knowledge to date, relating electoral districting and majority vote arrangements to black patterns of participation. It reviews the available literature, traces the associations that exist, identifies the problems in data collection and analysis that are present and sets forth a propositional inventory and set of conclusions that can serve as the basis for future research. The analysis incorporates original data and insights from the author's research and from cities in which he has served as a consultant. |
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