In 2024, Black Americans are estimated to make up almost 14 percent of all eligible voters in the United States, the highest percentage in U.S. election history. While relatively similar from the past few years, the rate has continued to climb since 2008, when only 12.7 percent of all U.S. eligible voters were Black.

Between 1964 and 2020, turnout among black voters in U.S. presidential elections fluctuated between 48 and 62 percent, with the highest turnouts coming in 2008 and 2012, when Barack Obama (the first African American candidate from a major party) was the Democratic candidate. Voter turnout has always been lowest among those under 25 years of age, although younger black voters did participate in high numbers in the 1960s, during the civil rights movement, and again in 2008, during Obama's first election campaign; young black voters also participated in higher numbers than white voters of the same age between 2000 and 2012.

In 1964, black voters over the age of 65 voted at a similar rate to those in the 18 to 24 bracket, however they have consistently had the highest turnout rates among black voters in recent years, overtaking voters in the 45 to 64 years bracket (whose voting rate has consistently been between 60 and 70 percent) in the 1996 election.

United States presidential elections are quadrennial elections that decide who will be the President and Vice President of the United States for the next four years. Voter turnout has ranged between 54 and 70 percent since 1964, with white voters having the highest voter turnout rate (particularly when those of Hispanic descent are excluded). In recent decades, turnout among black voters has got much closer to the national average, and in 2008 and 2012, the turnout among black voters was higher than the national average, exceeded only by non-Hispanic white voters; this has been attributed to Barack Obama's nomination as the Democratic nominee in these years, where he was the first African American candidate to run as a major party's nominee. Turnout among Asian and Hispanic voters is much lower than the national average, and turnout has even been below half of the national average in some elections. This has been attributed to a variety of factors, such as the absence of voting tradition in some communities or families, the concentration of Asian and Hispanic communities in urban (non-swing) areas, and a disproportionate number of young people (who are less likely to vote).

Throughout United States history, voter turnout among the voting eligible population has varied, ranging from below twelve percent in uncontested elections, to 83 percent in the 1876 election. In early years, turnout in presidential elections was relatively low, as the popular vote was not used in every state to decide who electors would vote for. When this was changed in the 1824 election, turnout increased dramatically, and generally fluctuated between seventy and eighty percent during the second half of the nineteenth century. Until the 1840 and 1842 elections, midterm elections also had a higher turnout rate than their corresponding presidential elections, although this trend has been reversed since these years.

Declining turnout in the twentieth century An increase in voting rights, particularly for black males in 1870 and for women in 1920, has meant that the share of the total population who are legally eligible to vote has increased significantly; yet, as the number of people eligible to vote increased, the turnout rate generally decreased. Following enfranchisement, it would take over fifty years before the female voter turnout would reach the same level as males, and over 150 years before black voters would have a similar turnout rate to whites. A large part of this was simply the lack of a voting tradition among these voter bases; however, the Supreme Court and lawmakers across several states (especially in the south) created obstacles for black voters and actively enforced policies and practices that disenfranchised black voter participation. These practices were in place from the end of the Reconstruction era (1876) until the the Voting Rights Act of 1965 legally removed and prohibited many of these obstacles; nonetheless, people of color continue to be disproportionally affected by voting restrictions to this day.

Recent decades In 1971, the Twenty-sixth Amendment lowered the minimum voting age in most states from 21 to 18 years old, which greatly contributed to the six and eight percent reductions in voter turnout in the 1972 and 1974 elections respectively, highlighting a distinct correlation between age and voter participation. Overall turnout remained below sixty percent from the 1970s until the 2004 election, and around forty percent in the corresponding midterms. In recent elections, increased political involvement among younger voters and those from ethnic minority backgrounds has seen these numbers rise, with turnout in the 2018 midterms reaching fifty percent. This was the highest midterm turnout in over one hundred years, leading many at the time to predict that the 2020 election would see one of the largest and most diverse voter turnouts in the past century, although these predictions then reversed with the arival of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. However, 2020 did prove to have the highest turnout in any presidential election since 1900; largely as a result of mail-in voting, improved access to early voting, and increased activism among grassroots organizations promoting voter registration.

This poll, fielded October 25-29, 2008, is a part of a continuing series of monthly surveys that solicit public opinion on the presidency and on a range of other political and social issues. This poll interviewed 1,439 adults nationwide, including 1,308 registered voters, about the way George W. Bush was handling the presidency, their financial situation compared to four years ago, whether the country was moving in the right direction, and the condition of the national economy. Registered voters were asked how much attention they were paying to the 2008 presidential campaign, whether they had voted in a Democratic or Republican primary or caucus that year, the likelihood that they would vote in the general election, for which presidential candidate they would vote, and whether they planned to vote in person on election day, by mail or absentee ballot, or at an early voting location. Those who had already voted were asked which presidential candidate they had voted for. Views were sought on presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain, vice-presidential candidates Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, and whether the presidential candidates' choices for vice president would affect their vote. Respondents were also asked whether they had seen television commercials for the candidates, whether most people they knew would vote for a Black president, and whether race affected a person's chances of getting ahead in society. Additional topics addressed the Iraq war, how well the United States Congress and respondent's own representative were doing their jobs, which political party held a majority in the United States House of Representatives, and whether respondents would vote for the Democratic or Republican candidate from their district in the upcoming election. Demographic variables include sex, age, race, education level, marital status, household income, perceived social class, political party affiliation, political philosophy, voter registration status and participation history, military service, religious preference, frequency of religious attendance, and whether respondents considered themselves to be a born-again Christian, and whether they had a child under 18 living in the household.

According to exit polling in the 2020 Presidential Election in the United States, 87 percent of surveyed Black voters reported voting for former Vice President Joe Biden. In the race to become the next president of the United States, 57 percent of white voters reported voting for incumbent President Donald Trump.

In the 1824 U.S presidential election, which was the first where a popular vote was used to determine the overall winner, approximately three percent of the U.S. population voted in the election, while only one percent actually voted for the winner. Over the following decades, restrictions that prevented non-property owning males from voting were gradually repealed, and almost all white men over the age of 21 could vote by the 1856 election. The next major development was the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution following the American Civil War, which granted suffrage to all male citizens of voting age, regardless of race. Turnout then grew to almost twenty percent at the turn of the century, however Jim Crow laws played a large part in keeping these numbers lower than they potentially could have been, by disenfranchising black communities in the south and undoing much of the progress made during the Reconstruction Era. Extension of voting rights Female suffrage, granted to women in 1920, was responsible for the largest participation increase between any two elections in U.S. history. Between the 1916 and 1920 elections, overall turnout increased by almost seven percent, and it continued to grow to 38 percent by the 1940 election; largely due to the growth in female participation over time. Following a slight reduction during the Second World War and 1948 elections, turnout remained at between 36 and forty percent from the 1950s until the 1990s. Between these decades, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Twenty-Sixth Amendment in 1971 respectively re-enfranchised many black voters in the south and reduced the voting age in all states from 21 to 18 years old. Participation among female voters has also exceeded male participation in all elections since 1980. Recent trends The 1992 election was the first where more than forty percent of the total population cast ballots, and turnout has been above forty percent in all presidential elections since 2004. Along with the extension of voting rights, the largest impact on voter turnout has been the increase in life expectancy throughout the centuries, almost doubling in the past 150 years. As the overall average age has risen, so too has the share of the total population who are eligible to vote, and older voters have had the highest turnout rates since the 1980s. Another factor is increased political involvement among ethnic minorities; while white voters have traditionally had the highest turnout rates in presidential elections, black voters turnout has exceeded the national average since 2008. Asian and Hispanic voter turnouts have also increased in the past twenty years, with the growing Hispanic vote in southern and border states expected to cause a major shift in U.S. politics in the coming decades.

In terms of the most popular presidents, in the 1940 election, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first president to have been elected by more than one fifth of the total population. Three presidents were elected by more than 22 percent of the total population, respectively Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, Richard Nixon in 1972 and Barack Obama in 2008, while Ronald Reagan's re-election in 1984 saw him become the only president in U.S. history to win with the support of more than 23 percent of the total population. While the vote count for the 2020 election is still to be finalized, President-elect Joe Biden has already received 81.28 million votes as of December 02, which would also translate to over 24.5 percent of the total population, and will likely near 25 percent by the end of the counting process.

This poll, fielded January 9-12, 2008, is a part of a continuing series of monthly surveys that solicits public opinion on the presidency and on a range of other political and social issues. A national sample of 1,191 adults was surveyed, including an oversample of African Americans, for a total of 185 African American respondents, including 141 African American Democratic primary voters. Views were sought on how well George W. Bush was handling the presidency, whether the country was moving in the right direction, the most important problem facing the nation, and the condition of the national economy. Respondents were asked how much attention they were paying to the 2008 presidential campaign, whether they would vote for the Democratic or Republican candidate if the election were held that day, whether they were more likely to vote in a Democratic or Republican primary or caucus in their state, who they would like their party to nominate, their level of support for this candidate, and who they expected to actually win. Respondents gave their opinions of Democratic presidential nominees Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards, Republican presidential nominees Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, and Mitt Romney, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Other questions asked about preferred qualities in the next president, whether respondents thought that most Americans and they themselves would vote for a presidential candidate who was an African American and a presidential candidate who was a woman, whether it was appropriate for candidates to show their emotions, and the importance of the results of the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries in their vote. Additional questions addressed the war in Iraq. Demographic variables include sex, age, race, education level, marital status, whether respondents had children under 18 years of age, political party affiliation, political philosophy, voter registration status and participation history, household income, religious preference, frequency of religious attendance, and whether respondents considered themselves to be a born-again Christian.

Abstract (en): This study is part of a time-series collection of national surveys fielded continuously since 1952. The election studies are designed to present data on Americans' social backgrounds, enduring political predispositions, social and political values, perceptions and evaluations of groups and candidates, opinions on questions of public policy, and participation in political life. A Black supplement of 263 respondents, who were asked the same questions that were administered to the national cross-section sample, is included with the national cross-section of 1,571 respondents. In addition to the usual content, the study contains data on opinions about the Supreme Court, political knowledge, and further information concerning racial issues. Voter validation data have been included as an integral part of the election study, providing objective information from registration and voting records or from respondents' past voting behavior. ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Performed consistency checks.; Standardized missing values.; Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.; Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.. United States citizens of voting age living in private households in the continental United States. A representative cross-section sample, consisting of 1,571 respondents, plus a Black supplement sample of 263 respondents. 2015-11-10 The study metadata was updated.1999-12-14 The data for this study are now available in SAS transport and SPSS export formats, in addition to the ASCII data file. Variables in the dataset have been renumbered to the following format: 2-digit (or 2-character) year prefix + 4 digits + [optional] 1-character suffix. Dataset ID and version variables have also been added. In addition, SAS and SPSS data definition statements have been created for this collection, and the data collection instruments are now available as a PDF file. face-to-face interview, telephone interviewThe SAS transport file was created using the SAS CPORT procedure.

This survey focused on presidential preferences and the influence of the Iowa Caucus on voting decisions

This special topic poll, conducted July 15-20, 1994, was undertaken to assess respondents' views on the state of affairs in Prince George's County, Maryland, and its upcoming county elections. Residents were polled on the biggest problems facing the county, whether things were going in the right or wrong direction, the quality of the public schools, whether the budget for public schools should be increased, decreased or maintained, and whether respondents would favor or oppose a tax increase if the money benefited the county's public schools. Views were sought on the quality of life in Prince George's County and whether it had improved, worsened, or stayed the same in the past ten years, whether respondents expected it to improve in the next ten years, what they liked the most and the least about living there, whether they would rather live somewhere else in the Washington area, and if so, where. Respondents were asked about the status of race relations in Prince George's County, whether it was improving, worsening, or staying the same, and how important it was that most people in their neighborhood shared their racial background. Questions regarding the Black and White populations of Prince George's County asked whether each group had too much, too little, or the right amount of influence in county politics, whether this influence was changing, and whether it would be better for the county if the population of these groups increased, decreased, or stayed the same. Residents were polled on the likelihood that they would vote in the upcoming Democratic primary election, their opinions of the candidates for county executive (Wayne Curry, Sue V. Mills, Artie Polk, and Beatrice Tignor), which candidate they would vote for, how strongly they supported him or her, how often they trusted county government to do what was right, and how important it was that the next county executive, school superintendent, or police chief elected was Black. Respondents also gave their impressions of Maryland gubernatorial candidate Parris Glendening, county attorney Robert Ostrom, and council member Richard Castaldi. Background variables include sex, age, education, religion, ethnicity, marital status, household income, number of children in household, political orientation, political party affiliation, voter registration and participation history, length of residency in Prince George's County, and previous residence.

The 705 respondents to the Ethnic Minority Survey are a subset of the BRITISH GENERAL ELECTION CROSS-SECTION SURVEY, 1997 (ICPSR 2615) with an ethnic boost generated by a random screening survey. Eligible ethnic minority respondents for this survey were those who considered themselves to be Black, Indian, Pakistani, or Bangladeshi. The aims of this survey were (1) to measure the extent to which ethnic minority voters are integrated into the electoral process, (2) to evaluate, after taking into account social background, whether members of the main ethnic minorities vote differently from each other and from their white counterparts, (3) to examine whether the political attitudes of ethnic minority voters differ significantly from those of white voters, and (4) to explore whether members of ethnic minorities are influenced by different considerations than their white counterparts in deciding how to vote, and to evaluate in particular the importance of issues of race and immigration in voting behavior of ethnic minority and white voters. Fieldwork was conducted between May 1, 1997, the day of the 1997 British general election, and August 1997. Respondents were asked for their opinions on the existence of prejudice against them, recent improvements in Britain for minorities, the role of the government in improving conditions for minorities, the effectiveness of laws against racial discrimination and racial violence, school programs tailored for minority students, Britain's blasphemy law, state funding of religious schools, the stances of British political parties toward minorities, and the presence of minority figures in British politics. Additionally, topics covered in the Cross-Section Survey include the 1997 election campaign, participation in 1997 local elections, political knowledge, trust in government, images of British leadership, and views on British political parties, the European Union, Northern Ireland, nuclear weapons, unemployment, inflation, nationalization and privatization of companies, redistribution of income, women's rights, the role of government in social policy, abortion, ethnic minorities, the British economy, and the future of governmental institutions such as the House of Lords. Background information on respondents includes age, sex, race, ethnicity, political party, political orientation, marital status, number of members in household, social class, employment history, health insurance status, citizenship, country of birth, voter registration and participation history, household income, education, religion, parents' employment history, parents' voting behavior, spouse's employment history, and union membership.

The 1960 US presidential election was the first to take place in all fifty states (although not Washington DC), and the first time where the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution prevented the incumbent president from running for a third term in office. The race was contested between John F. Kennedy of the Democratic Party, and incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon of the Republican Party. Kennedy defeated future-President Lyndon B. Johnson in the Democratic National Convention and asked Johnson to serve as his running mate, while Nixon won the Republican nomination comfortably, despite an early challenge from Nelson Rockefeller. This campaign is also notable for being the first to use televised debates between the candidates, including one that used split-screen technology, allowing the candidates to speak live from opposite sides of the country.

Campaign

Early in the campaign, both candidates were vibrant and charismatic, and garnered a loyal follower base. Kennedy spent most of his campaign criticizing the previous administration for falling behind the Soviet Union in terms of the military, economy and the space race, while Nixon highlighted the achievements made by Eisenhower's administration, and promised to build on them. Most historians agree that Kennedy's campaign was more structured and used better tactics than Nixon's, by canvassing heavily in swing states and districts instead of giving equal attention to all parts of the country (as Nixon did), with Kennedy focusing on metropolitan areas while Johnson canvassed in the south. Nixon's campaign was also more prone to mistakes, such as not preparing and refusing make-up for televised debates (making him look ill), while his running mate promised to elect African-Americans to the cabinet, however this just alienated black voters who were ambivalent in their reaction. Kennedy's connection with Martin Luther King Jr. also helped him to take a much larger share of the black vote than his opponent.

Results and Controversy

The popular vote was split by fewer than 120,000 out of seventy million votes. Kennedy took 49.7 percent of the popular vote, while Nixon took 49.5 percent. Nixon, however took more states than Kennedy, carrying 26 to Kennedy's 22, but Kennedy's tactical campaigning paid off, as his 22 states returned 303 electoral votes to Nixon's 219. Unpledged Democratic electors in the south gave 15 electoral votes to Harry F. Byrd, as they opposed Kennedy's stance on civil rights. Due to the close nature of the results, many Republicans called for recounts and accused the Kennedy campaign of cheating or committing voter fraud. For example, they highlighted that more votes were cast in certain districts of Texas (Johnson's home state) than the number of registered voters, and when Nixon lost Illinois despite winning 92 out of 101 counties, many suggested a link between the Kennedy campaign and organized crime syndicates in Chicago. These claims have subsequently been proven to be false, and historians generally agree that Kennedy's campaigning methods and Nixon's wastefulness won Kennedy the election. John F. Kennedy was subsequently named the 35th President of the United States, and is remembered favorably as one of the most popular and charismatic leaders in US history. Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, less than three years into his first term, and was succeeded by his Vice President, Lyndon B. Johnson.

In U.S. presidential elections since 1964, voters in the 18 to 24 age bracket have traditionally had the lowest turnout rates among all ethnicities. From 1964 until 1996, white voters in this age bracket had the highest turnout rates of the four major ethnic groups in the U.S., particularly those of non-Hispanic origin. However participation was highest among young Black voters in 2008 and 2012, during the elections where Barack Obama, the U.S.' first African-American major party candidate, was nominated. Young Asian American and Hispanic voters generally have the lowest turnout rates, and were frequently below half of the overall 18 to 24 turnout before the 2000s.

The 1868 US presidential election was the first to take place after the American Civil War, abolition of slavery, and the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. The Republican Party's Ulysses S. Grant competed with the Democratic Party's Horatio Seymour, even though incumbent President Andrew Johnson was eligible to run on the Democratic ticket. President Johnson had ascended to the presidency following Lincoln's assassination, however his inability to unite Republicans and Democrats during the post-civil war reconstruction led to impeachment charges being brought before Johnson, and he was almost removed from office, surviving by just one vote (36 of 54 "guilty" votes were needed to remove Johnson from office, however only 35 guilty votes were cast). Results The 1868 election was fought on an "anti-black, pro-white" platform by the Democratic Party, while the Republican Party campaigned on Grant's popularity as the Union military leader in the civil war. Grant won almost 53 percent of the popular vote, however this gave him almost three quarters of the electoral vote. Grant carried a total of 26 states, compared to Seymour's 8, and many of Grants victories were in states he had fought against in the civil war (although in 1868 Mississippi, Texas and Virginia had not yet been readmitted into the Union, and could not take part in the Presidential election). Grant's victories in the south have been attributed to lower levels of engagement among politically disenfranchised, white voters, as well as huge popularity among newly-freed, black voters. More than 700,000 black voters registered in 1867, and black voters were the majority in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.

Since 1824, when the popular vote was first used to determine the overall winner in U.S. presidential elections, the share of the population who participate in these elections has gradually increased. Despite this increase, participation has never reached half of the total population; partly due to the share of the population below the voting age of eighteen, but also as many potential voters above the age of eighteen do not take part, or are ineligible to vote. For example, in the 2016 election, approximately twenty million U.S. adults were ineligible to vote, while over 94 million simply did not participate; in this election, Donald Trump won the electoral college with 63 million votes, which means that 19.4 percent of the total U.S. population (or 27.3 percent of eligible voters) voted for the current president.

Development throughout history

While the figures for the 2016 election may appear low, over 42 percent of the total population participated in this election, which was the third highest participation rate ever recorded (after the 2008 and 2020 elections). In the first election decided by a popular vote in 1824, only 350 thousand votes were cast from a total population of 10.6 million, although this increased to over four million votes by the 1856 election, as restrictions that applied to non-property holding white males were gradually lifted. Participation levels then dropped during the Civil War and Reconstruction era, as those who lived in Confederate states could not vote in 1864, and many white southerners were restricted or discouraged in the following election. Although universal suffrage was granted to black males in the wake of the Civil War, the majority of black Americans lived in the southern states, where lawmakers introduced Jim Crow laws in the late 1800s to suppress and disenfranchise the black vote, as well as poor white voters.

The next major milestone was the introduction of women's suffrage in 1920, which saw voter participation increase by seven million votes (or seven percent) between the 1916 and 1920 elections. Between the 1910s and 1970s, the Great Migration saw many black Americans move away from the south to northern and western states, where they faced fewer obstacles when voting and greater economic mobility. This period of black migration began to decline in the 1960s and 1970s, during which time many Jim Crow laws were repealed in the south, through legislation such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Female participation also grew gradually, and has exceeded male voting participation in all elections since the 1980s. The minimum voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 in all states in 1971, although this seemingly had a minimal impact on the short-term trajectory of voter participation.

Recent elections

The 1992 election was the first in which more than one hundred million votes were cast, which was almost 41 percent of the total population. All elections since 2004 have also had more than one hundred million votes cast, which has again been more than forty percent of the total population. Another key factor in the increase in voter participation is the fact that people are living longer than ever before, and that those aged 65 and over have had the highest turnout levels since 1992. While some figures may be subject to change, the 2020 election set new records for voter turnout. Despite the global coronavirus pandemic, which many thought could cause the lowest turnout in decades, a record number of voters cast their ballots early or by mail, setting a new record of votes just shy of 160 million. In the 2020 election, Joe Biden and Donald Trump received 81.3 million and 74.2 million votes respectively, both beating Barack Obama's previous record of 69.3 million ballots in 2008.

This special topic survey consists of responses to a survey of residents in Los Angeles regarding the O.J. Simpson jury selection process. Respondents were asked whether they received a summons to appear for jury duty at the Los Angeles Superior Court on September 26, 1994, and how closely they followed the news coverage of O.J. Simpson and the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Specific questions included whether Simpson could get a fair trial in Los Angeles, whether the respondent had formed any opinions on the case, and whether the respondent, if appointed a juror, would have any difficulty in basing a judgment solely on evidence presented at the trial. Opinions were sought on the prosecution's and defense's strongest piece of information, the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office, and the validity of DNA and other scientific testimony. Other topics included opinions on the criminal justice system and police officers in Los Angeles, with specific focus on possible biases against Blacks. Background information includes voter registration status, household composition, vote choice in the 1992 presidential election, political party, political orientation, education, age, sex, race, religious preference, and family income.

As of April 2024, a majority of 6.81 million registered voters for the South African general elections were between the ages of 30 to 39 years, which accounted for almost 25 percent of the total. Those in the 40 to 49-year age group followed, with approximately six million registered voters.

In 2018, 34 percent of eligible voters in the United States who were born abroad were Hispanic. On the other hand, 10 percent of eligible voters in the country who were born abroad were Black.

The 1876 United States presidential election is remembered as being one of the closest and contentious elections in US history. It was contested between the Republican Party's Rutherford B. Hayes and the Democratic Party's Samuel J. Tilden. Hayes was eventually named as the nineteenth President of the United States, winning by just one electoral vote. Tilden won 51 percent of the popular vote, and this makes him the only presidential candidate to ever win a majority of popular votes, but not be named president, and this was the second of five times where the person with the most votes was not named president. Controversy After the first round of counting, both candidates carried 17 states each, with four states too close to call. At this point, Tilden had 184 electoral votes (one short of a majority) to Hayes' 165. With both parties claiming victory in the final four states, and no official decision being made, an informal deal was agreed upon by both parties. This deal was the Compromise of 1877, and it gave the remaining twenty electoral votes to Hayes in return for the withdrawal of Federal troops from the south; thus establishing Democratic political dominance in the south, and ending the period of Reconstruction following the civil war. Suppression of the black vote Over the next few decades, the Democratic Party was able to use this dominance in the former-Confederate states to establish obstacles for poor-white and black voters when registering to vote. Following the civil war, black voters outnumbered white voters in at least five southern states, and these voters tended to vote Republican (the party of Lincoln, who is regarded as the figure most responsible for breaking down the institution of slavery). White dominance was achieved by introducing measures such as literacy tests and poll taxes, which disproportionately affected black voters, disenfranchising a significant number of them from participating in US politics. Although many of these practices were overturned through the civil rights era in the 1950s and 1960s, voter suppression continues to this day through the gerrymandering of district lines, as well as ID requirements and controversial computer systems that disproportionately affect ethnic-minorities during the voting process.