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AbstractAlthough research demonstrates that favorable ballot position can deliver candidates a small windfall of votes in local, nonpartisan, and primary elections, it is not clear whether ballot order laws have had any impact on the composition of U.S. legislatures. In this article, I estimate the substantive significance of ballot order rules by comparing the legislators of states that alphabetically order ballots to those elected by states that randomize or rotate ballot order. I also compare legislators elected by states that started or stopped alphabetically ordering ballots in recent decades. I find that states that alphabetically order ballots disproportionately elect candidates with early alphabet surnames. My research challenges the prevailing belief that ballot order affects only minor elections and suggests that seemingly innocuous rules have altered our political landscape. I conclude that arbitrary ballot ordering rules should be reformed to remedy their substantial impact on political representation.

The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to strike down a key component of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) closes one of the most successful chapters in the history of civil rights enforcement. Our country has changed since 1965 and it is an opportune time to examine current political conditions for minority voters. Based on analysis of congressional elections from 1960 to 2010, I assess the central holding of Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, and other controversial areas of VRA enforcement. My results support the Court's finding that the Act's historic coverage formula does not accurately reflect current political conditions. However, my results challenge prevailing views on two points. I conclude that uniform standards are problematic because redistricting guidelines that improve opportunities for African American voters are likely to diminish opportunities for Latino voters (and vice versa). In addition, requiring majority African American districts appears to diminish aggregate African American voting opportunities relative to targeting 45% to 50% African American districts. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright holder.]

The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to strike down a key component of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) closes one of the most successful chapters in the history of civil rights enforcement. Our country has changed since 1965 and it is an opportune time to examine current political conditions for minority voters. Based on analysis of congressional elections from 1960 to 2010, I assess the central holding of Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, and other controversial areas of VRA enforcement. My results support the Court's finding that the Act's historic coverage formula does not accurately reflect current political conditions. However, my results challenge prevailing views on two points. I conclude that uniform standards are problematic because redistricting guidelines that improve opportunities for African American voters are likely to diminish opportunities for Latino voters (and vice versa). In addition, requiring majority African American districts appears to diminish aggregate African American voting opportunities relative to targeting 45% to 50% African American districts.

The Fifth Edition of A Stata® Companion to Political Analysis by Philip H. Pollock III and Barry C. Edwards teaches your students statistics by analyzing research-quality data in Stata. It follows the structure of Essentials of Political Analysis with software instructions, explanations of tests, and many exercises for practice

"The Third Edition of An R Companion to Political Analysis by Philip H. Pollock III and Barry C. Edwards teaches your students to conduct political research with R, the open source programming language and software environment for statistical computing and graphics. This workbook offers the same easy-to-use and effective style as other software Companions, tailored for R. With this comprehensive workbook, students analyze research-quality data to learn descriptive statistics, data transformations, bivariate analysis (such as cross-tabulations and mean comparisons), controlled comparisons, correlation and bivariate regression, interaction effects, and logistic regression. The clear explanations and instructions are aided by the use of many annotated and labeled screen shots, as well as QR codes linking to demonstration videos. The many end-of-chapter exercises allow students to apply their new skills. The Third Edition includes new and revised exercises, along with new and updated datasets from the 2020 American National Election Study, an experiment dataset, and two aggregate datasets, one on 50 U.S. states and one based on countries of the world. A new structure helps break up individual elements of political analysis for deeper explanation while an updated suite of R functions makes using R even easier. Students will gain valuable skills learning to analyze political data in R"--