In majority Democratic school districts, African Americans gain significantly more representation in at-large elections

Research on electoral structure has often touted single member districts to be beneficial for achieving minority representation. In a study of a national sample of school board elections between 2002 and 2008, Kenneth J. Meier and Amanda Rutherford find an unanticipated trend—African Americans are now over-represented on school boards with at-large elections when they are a minority of the population. They argue that partisanship changes the relationship between electoral structure and race so that African American may benefit in counties with a majority Democrat constituency. The traditional pattern of African-American under representation occurs only in school districts with a Republican voting majority.