Southern Voting Behavior

Southern Voting Behavior

Southern Voting behavior since the 1960’s
Voters in many areas of the U.S. are apt to vote differently as a whole from election to election. The nation has also
had a decreased turnout rate for the presidential and local elections. The South has typically not followed these
patterns that the rest of has seemed to be following. The Southern whites of the U.S. have typically followed and
voted for the more conservative candidate and party. Where as the Southern blacks have typically (when they have
been able to vote) voted for the more liberal party or candidate. The South was at one time a Democratic stronghold
and has in the past 30 years become a typically conservative voting electorate. This tendency of voting by race for
the liberal or conservative candidate has been a continuing occurrence. Southern turn out for elections has been
significantly lower than the rest of the nation as well over the same time period. This bias of the past 30 years as
well as voter turn out has only recently began to change in the So!
uth.
In the beginning of and prior to the 1960’s the South was a Democratic stronghold and it was rare for there to be any
competition from Republicans in these non competitive states (Mulcahy p.56). A poll taken in the 1960’s showed
that " the southern states were the obvious stronghold of Democratic identification. The extreme case was Louisiana,
where 66% identified with the Democratic party"(Black p.44). This all began to ...

Southern Voting Behavior

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