to assess the claims of political scientists in regards to the establishment of the Solid
South. With the end of Reconstruction in 1877, Democrats began disenfranchising the
opposition and creating a single-party regime. Experts in Southern politics disagree as to
the effectiveness of the myriad tools used to achieve this end, and by using election
forensics I can provide estimates of the severity of vote suppression over time. In short, I
improve on and expand forensic tools and put them into practice in three significant
cases.