Darryl PaulsonFifth in a series
The civil rights movement and the passage of federal laws such as the Voting Rights Act ended the major hurdles to black voting in Florida and the South. Black voter registration soared and, with the passage of time, hundreds of blacks in Florida would be elected to political office.
The election of Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama would not have been possible without the movement and the legislation. Carter said that without the civil rights movement and the passage of the Voting Rights Act, no Southerner could have won a national election.
In other words, until the issue of race had been resolved, most Americans could not bring themselves to vote for a Southerner while the region was oppressing its black citizens.
A look at the 2012 presidential election finds that blacks voted at higher rates than whites. Many argue that voter suppression efforts by the Republican Party actually stimulated their high participation rates. Even worse for Republicans, 95 percent of that vote went to Obama.
While the major barriers to black voting have been removed, many observers argue that voter disenfranchisement has been replaced with vote dilution. As Southern voting rights expert Chandler Davidson notes, “minorities can now vote — they just cannot cast an effective vote.”
Most vote dilution schemes make no direct reference to race, but all are based on the residential concentration of black voters in certain parts of a city or county. The main forms of vote dilution are run-off primaries, at-large elections and multi-member districts.
Florida was the first state to adopt the run-off primary in 1901. At that time, blacks made up 44 percent of the population and there was a real fear that a black candidate might win an election in a multi-candidate field.
To diminish that possibility, a second or run-off primary was instituted. If no candidate received a majority of the vote in the first primary, the top two vote-getters would compete in a run-off. This would usually allow white voters to coalesce around the white candidate to prevent the election of any black.
At-large elections also dilute the black vote. For example, if blacks made up 25 percent of a city’s population and there were eight council districts, blacks would likely win two of those districts if single-member districts were used. By switching to at-large elections, whites outnumber blacks three to one and will likely win all of the seats.
Multi-member districts operate under the same principle as at-large elections. In single-member districts, blacks would be expected to win many districts. In multi-member districts, anywhere from two to six candidates run for seats in the county or in legislative districts. Since white voters outnumber blacks, white candidates generally win all the seats.
Until 1981, the Florida Senate had five one-member districts, seven two-member districts and seven three-member districts. The Florida House had districts ranging from two to six members and 99 of the 120 members of the House were elected from multi-member districts.
While in use, no more than five blacks served in the House at any one time. Although no longer used, the Florida Constitution still permits multi-member districts and they could be reinstituted at any time.
Next: The 2000 presidential election to the present.
