 With the help of the bureau, the recently freed slaves began voting, forming political parties, and assuming the control of labor in many areas.The bureau helped to start a change of power in the South that drew national attention from the Republicans in the North to the conservative Democrats in the South.This is especially evident in the election between Grant and Seymour (Johnson did not get the Democratic nomination), where almost 700,000 black voters voted and swayed the election 300,000 votes in Grant's favor.