Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA), the number of African- Americans competing for and holding state legislative offices has increased significantly. Their growth is most notable in southern state legislatures. A growing number of studies have been devoted to African-Americans in these state legislatures. Absent from previous studies is a comprehensive analysis of African-Americans in the Louisiana state legislature. In 2007 there were a total of 32 African-American legislators. Louisiana ranks among other states with the highest number, 32, and percentage, 22, of African-American legislators. Yet, despite their relatively large presence few scholarly studies have examined their legislative behavior. This study focused primarily on the substantive representation of African-Americans, especially during the post-Hurricane Katrina period. In this dissertation, the following questions were examined: Have the growing number of these legislators resulted in greater influence in state policy-making? Have they chaired any important, policy-relevant committees in the state legislature? Have they articulated and advocated a race-based legislative agenda for African-American constituents? Using a multi-methodological approach including the analysis of voting rights legislation introduced in the post-Hurricane Katrina legislative sessions and qualitative interviews, evidence was found to conclude that African-American House members have provided substantive representation to their constituents, obtained key institutional leadership positions, and campaigned in biracial terms, which has contributed to there ability to have a notable impact in the chamber.

Over the course of the past 30 years, states across the nation have adopted early in-person voting laws. The bulk of academic literature on early in-person voting revolves around the policy’s effect on turnout. This research was conducted over the course of several decades, in different electoral contexts, measuring a diverse array of laws, and remains inconclusive. Meanwhile, the political discussion of voting rights and electoral reform has become increasingly polarized. The divisive views on early voting both in the academic community and in the political realm are indicators of a distinctive evolution of early voting. I argue that early voting reforms were implemented in three unique eras, characterized by different political motivations and an evolving early electorate. I use case studies in Texas, Florida, Missouri, and Massachusetts to explain this theory and provide a framework for more ordered future research.

This thesis analyzes Jason Brennan's paper "The Right to a Competent Electorate," then critiques his argument in favor of restricting voting rights to those deemed competent. I consider the practical and ethical implications of testing for competence, then conclude, contrary to Brennan, that granting all citizens voting rights is more just than restricting the voting population.

This thesis has detailed the political activity of the influential Republicans in relation to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Contained in the thesis are: a brief description of events in Selma, Alabama in early 1965 that illustrated the continued existence of voting discrimination after the passage of three civil rights bills in eight years; response of GOP members of Congress to the awareness that previous measures enforcing the Fifteenth Amendment were ineffective; Republican efforts to enact a voting rights bill and an interpretation of Republican political behavior relating to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

When history is written is often concluded to most people that the version that is being told is the only frame that’s exist, but not only that most readers don´t reflect that the story they reading could have more than one cause and effect. This paper is trying to answer if and if so why seven different authors have different conclusions when they are describing the right to vote reform in Sweden during the period between 1880 and 1918. The papers source material will be from seven books from and they will range from a neutral standpoint to the history by trying to tell the story in a neutral manner to some books witch clearly has a specific angle when describing the process. The specific angle is that they focus on a single organisation or a specific group of people, which could change how the author describe the voting history. The most important conclusion that could be drawn from this study is that most authors have in most cases framed the same narrative when it comes to the voting right history. The story they tell will differentiate a bit, because that the focus they have when writing the book will not be the same, but still some portion of the story will remain the same. Some parts of the voting right history will be excluded and forgotten by most authors and this paper has tried to answer the question why that’s the case.

Remote internet voting is a phenomenon of modern democratic societies. This topic has slowly become an important and frequent subject of political research. Thus, the aim of the thesis was to analyse this inovative, but yet controversial, method of voting from the standpoint of voting rights. The first of the thesis is concern on the general theory of elections and legal concept of voting rights to understand the meaning of elements of voting rights. The second part of the thesis comprises three case studies on countries which have already organised the remote internet voting in some types of elections: Estonia, Switzerland and the Netherlands. These chapters have proved several issues and variables between particular e-voting systems, such as the possibility of casting e-votes repeatedly, who is allowed to use internet voting or where votes can be cast on-line. The main goal of the thesis was to provide a clear set of potentional barriers of remote internet voting for an accomplishment of democratic suffrage in cases of these three countries and evaluate the possibilities of the idea of remote internet voting used in the electoral system of the Czech Republic. Thus, the third part of the thesis was focused on the case of the Czech republic and main principles of vote suffrage. The author...

The thesis Disfranchising Prisoners in the U.S. - New Means of Segregation?: Case Study of Commonwealth of Virginia deals with the equality of the criminal justice system in Virginia. The goal of this thesis is to determine, whether the criminal justice system in the Commonwealth of Virginia is used to discriminate against minorities and if the laws and practices are creating a group of second-class citizens out of African Americans. The first chapter will be devoted to the data and history of disenfranchisement, the second chapter will deal with the consequences of a felony conviction, such as the loss of the right to vote, loss of employment and loss of social benefits and parental rights. In the last chapter of my thesis, I will analyze the possibilities of a future reform and its main sources, such as court decisions, the ratification of a constitutional amendment to the Virginia Constitution, and gubernatorial action by the Governor of Virginia. The findings of this thesis show that the criminal justice in Virginia is used to discriminate against African Americans and that the laws and practices are creating a group of second-class citizens out of African Americans.

"Mémoire présenté à la faculté des études supérieures en vue de l'obtention du grade de maîtrise en droit (LL.M.)" / Depuis l'avènement de la Loi sur la clarté, remettant expressément en cause la validité de la règle de la majorité, ainsi que la célèbre maxime « une personne, une voix », au profit d'une majorité dite « claire », dans le cas d'un référendum québécois visant à se « séparer » du reste du Canada, ce mémoire tente de faire la lumière et d'analyser la validité ainsi que les fondements de cette règle historique du 50% + 1. Ainsi, tant à l'aide des thèses contemporaines qu'historiques, il importe de faire ressortir les différents arguments avancés de part et d'autre et de les replacer dans le présent contexte du Renvoi relatif à la sécession du Québec, menant à l'adoption de la Loi sur la clarté. Finalement, grâce aux récents référendums tenus à l'échelle mondiale, il sera dès lors possible de vérifier la validité de cette règle aux· niveaux national et intemational. / Since the enactment of the Clarity Act, which repudiated the validity of the majority rule and the famous maxim "one person, one vote", for the benefit of a so-called "clear" majority, this essay attempts to bring to light the validity and the foundation of the historical 50% + 1 rule, in the event of a referendum by the province of Quebec pursuant to "secede" from Canada. Thereby, by examining either the contemporary as weil as the historical justifications in favor of the majority rule, one ought to examine the different arguments put forward by either side of the political specter and try to interpret them in the context of the Secession Reference, which lead to the adoption of the Clarity Act. Analyzing the recent referendums held around the world, 1 will thereby try to examine the validity ofthe majority rule at the national and internationallevels.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the voting trends in Mobile, Alabama, which have developed since 1948; particular emphasis is placed upon the role of the Negro vote in Mobile politics before and after the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Recent corporate scandals and subsequent regulatory actions have heightened both the academic communities and the public's interest in corporate governance issues. Academics have long argued that voting rights constitute a critical component of a system of corporate governance. We provide evidence on the importance of one aspect of the firm's corporate governance system, namely shareholders' voting rights, by examining the determinants of the decision to grant equity-based compensation to the employees of the firm with or without shareholder approval. We find that poorly-performing firms and poorly-governed firms are more likely to adopt equity-based compensation plans without shareholder approval. Furthermore, when we examine financial performance subsequent to adoption of equity-based compensation plans, we find that poorly-governed firms that adopt equity-based compensation plans without consulting shareholder do not appear to gain any significant benefits associated with the incentives the plans are supposed to provide. In fact, in the year after an equity-based compensation plan is adopted, these firms perform worse than firms that have good systems of corporate governance or firms that place equity-based compensation plans to a shareholder vote. Overall, our results suggest that shareholder voting rights are an important tool of corporate governa