Michael A. Smith 
Much Sound and Fury, or the New Jim Crow? 
The Twenty-First Century’s Restrictive New Voting Laws and Their Impact

Since 2003, several US states have passed new laws that complicate the process of voter registration and voting. Framed as controls on voter fraud, the laws have spawned controversy in both the courts and public opinion, the latter falling along a sharp partisan divide.
Much Sound and Fury, or the New Jim Crow? offers a scholarly analysis, not of the intent but rather the impact of these laws. Beginning with a historical overview of the expanding and contracting right to vote, particularly regarding its impact on African Americans, subsequent chapters use quantitative analysis to analyze the impact of identification requirement laws, proof-of-citizenship requirements, felony disenfranchisement, and gerrymandering. Before 2020, the impact of the laws leaned slightly negative but was mixed. More recent developments, however, point to a far more alarming implication—widespread belief in factually-baseless allegations of fraud, which undermines Americans’ trust and faith in our constitutional democracy; these allegations reached a crescendo in 2021 as a violent mob seized the US Capitol. The book concludes with an afterword on the 2020 elections and their aftermath.

Table of Content

List of Illustrations



1. Introduction


Michael A. Smith and Chapman Rackaway



2. Black Voting Rights 1865–2016: Two Reconstructions and Four Mississippi Plans


Russell Brooker



3. The Impact of Voter ID Laws on County Turnout in the 2016 Presidential Election


Ryan E. Voris



4. Backlash! Do Restrictive Voting Laws Mobilize Their Opponents?


Michael A. Smith



5. Using Cross‑Sectional, Time Series, and Border Analysis to Identify the Impact of Restrictive Voting Laws


Bekah Selby and Michael A. Smith



6. Contemporary Effects of Felony Disenfranchisement upon Election Turnout and Partisan Vote Share


Linda M. Trautman and Bekah Selby



7. Using Mathematics to Understand How Gerrymandering Affects Partisan Voting Power


Brian Hollenbeck and Deborah G. Hann



8. Civil Rights Groups Respond


Kevin Anderson



Conclusion


Michael A. Smith and Chapman Rackaway



Afterword on the 2020 Election


Michael A. Smith



Contributors

Index

About the author

Michael A. Smith is Professor of Political Science and Chair of Social Sciences, Sociology, and Criminology at Emporia State University. He is the author of several books, including
Low Taxes and Small Government: Sam Brownback’s Great Experiment in Kansas (with Robert J. Grover and Rob Catlett).