Gerald L. Ingalls

Fifty Years of Political Change in the South: Electing African Americans and Women to Public Office

In the 50 years since the founding of SEDAAG there has been marked political change in the South. In this article, we examine one aspect of change in southern politics—the election of women and African Americans to public office. Historically excluded from political power in the South, these two groups are in many ways highly indicative of the consequences of the changing politics of the region. This aspect of the changing South is examined through a historical summary of the success over time of African Americans and women in gaining access to political office in the region. We conclude that while recent increases in the levels of black representation in the region have been impressive (albeit thanks to federal pressure), the South continues to lag behind the rest of the country in electing women to public office.

Effects of Campaign Spending On Local Elections The Charlotte Case

Data on Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, N.C. elections held between 1975 and 1980 were collected. The effects of campaign spending, party, sex, race, and incumbency are examined in five types of elections in this single area: nonpartisan school board, single member district primaries, single member district general partisan elections, multiple seat primaries, and multiple seat general partisan elections. Three conclusions are worthy of note: (1) Money is as important in partisan elections as in primaries and school board contests, (2) Campaign spending plays a stronger role in single member district elections and incumbency a stronger role in multiple seat elections, (3) incumbency, party, and campaign spending are not as strongly related to the vote as is suggested by studies that focus on many different constituencies for one office.

Race and Campaign Finance in Charlotte, N.C

Although there are no published studies showing the role of race in money politics, there is a great deal of research on campaign finance and separate research on the political behavior of blacks. We will not examine either set of studies in detail here, but we will discuss a few of the works that guided our research. We expect, first, that blacks are less likely to contribute and give less money to campaigns than whites. Adamany (1972: 11) and Alexander (1976: 97) both agree that contributors tend to be people with high incomes, strong parental activism, a more than usual attentiveness to politics, and high political efficacy. All of these characteristics are more common among whites than among blacks. Moreover, Arrington (1984) has shown that blacks vote less consistently than whites in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. Adamany (1972: 200) argues that there is no sign of mass contributing by blacks to the black candidates and factions at the national level.

The limited vote alternative to affirmative districting

Abstract The Supreme Court may have effectively put affirmative districting off limits as a procedure to alleviate vote dilution in voting rights cases. If so, alternative voting systems seem logical, if not popular options. In this paper six voting systems at use in the US are evaluated utilizing nine measures of feasibility. Two traditional and popular voting systems — simple at-large, multi-seat and single-member districts — are compared to four alternatives — single transferable vote, cumulative voting, equal allocation cumulative voting and limited voting. The comparison along nine dimensions suggests that limited voting may be a viable alternative in situations where affirmative districting is not feasible or unlikely to withstand court oversight. Examination of jurisdictions in the US South which use limited voting shows that it is largely confined to Alabama and North Carolina. The results of elections before and after the adoption of limited voting shows that the number of minority candidates increases and their chance of winning goes up greatly when limited voting replaces simple at-large systems.