A panacea for Latino and Black voters? Elevated turnout in vote by mail elections

Abstract

This study analyzes U.S. Census data from citywide elections in Denver, Colorado from 2004 to 2007 in order to determine if a vote by mail format facilitated participation by Latino and Black voters. The multivariate results suggest that both Latino and Black voters participated more often in vote by mail elections, although the Black turnout increase was also affected by the recent change in Colorado's registration policies.

Keywords:

• Vote by mail
• Black voters
• Latino voters

Notes

1 Denver also conducted general elections in November 2006 using “vote centers” which do not provide for demographic turnout data and which therefore have not been used in this analysis.

2 All data was provided by the Denver County Elections Commission at its website http://www.denvergov.org/election%20commission.

3 The citywide turnout in 2007 was lower than the 48 percent turnout in Denver's 2003 municipal polling place election. The 2003 election featured a hotly contested mayoral race. However, turnout in the 2007 election was significantly higher than the 1999 polling place mayoral election, which saw a turnout of only 26%.

4 By focusing on city elections, Hajnal and Trounstine (2005) found that lower turnout leads to substantial reductions in the representation of Latinos and Asian Americans on city councils and in the mayor's office. For Blacks, district elections and off-cycle local elections were more important barriers to representation. Their methodology was challenged by Grimmer and Nall (2007) who found no relationship between higher levels of aggregate turnout and descriptive representation of minorities on city councils.