Politics
Latest study underscores the growing clout of African American voters
African American voters. PHOTO/John Gress/Getty Images
African Americans voted at a higher rate this year than other minority groups and for the first time in history may also have voted at a higher rate than white Americans, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of census data, election day exit poll data and vote totals from selected cities and counties.
Unlike other minority groups whose increasing electoral muscle has been driven mainly by population growth, African Americans’ rising share of the vote in the past four presidential elections has been the result of rising turnout rates.
These participation milestones are notable not just in light of the long history of black disenfranchisement, but also in light of recently-enacted state voter identification laws that some critics contended would suppress turnout disproportionately among African Americans and other minority groups.
According to census data and the election day exit polls, African Americans made up 12 percent of the eligible electorate this year but accounted for an estimated 13 percent of all votes cast, a repeat of the 2008 presidential election, when African Americans “over-performed” at the polls by the same ratio. In all previous presidential elections for which there are reliable data, blacks had accounted for a smaller share of votes than eligible voters.
The candidacy in 2008 and 2012 of Barack Obama, the nation’s first African American president, is no doubt one of the main reasons for these new patterns. But there are other explanations as well, including the increased racial and ethnic diversity of the electorate, and a declining turnout rate among white Americans.
The racial and ethnic breakdown of share of the 2012 vote compared with the share of eligible voters from the Pew report is as follows:
– White American voters: 72 percent, compared with 71 percent.
– African American voters: 13 percent, compared with 12 percent.
– Hispanic American voters: 10 percent, compared with 11 percent.
– Asian American voters: 3 percent, compared with 4 percent.