Black Turnout

The story has been floating around the past few days, but it’s been confirmed with the release of a report yesterday from the US Census (specifically the Current Population Survey Voting and Registration Supplement).  African Americans voted at a higher rate than the (non-Latino) white population for the first time in 2012. Turnout among the black population was 66.2%, and the non-Latino white population 64.1%.  I’ve skimmed the report, and I’ll read it with greater attention tonight or tomorrow morning, and hope to have some more to say about it.

When we consider all the barriers both attempted and actually erected in the name of suppressing minority turnout fraud prevention,this is pretty remarkable. More so when we consider that for each percentage point increase in a state’s black population, the average wait increased nearly half a minute at the polls; nationally, Latinos and African Americans waited an average of 20.2 minutes, while whites 12.7 minutes.