 Racial minorities had been largely disenfranchised from the turn of the 20th century, well into the late 1960s, by laws that discriminated against them and made voter registration and voting more difficult.The majority of voters in the county, who were generally white conservatives, supported Republican presidential candidates only five times from 1912 to 1996.Through the late 20th century, white conservatives shifted into the Republican Party, while minority ethnic groups largely aligned with the Democratic Party, which had supported their campaigns for civil rights.