A sharp rise in African American voting rates in the 2008 presidential election was largely a Southern phenomenon, according to a Census analysis of voting patterns released Wednesday.
The South was the only region in the country where the voting rate among blacks increased sizably from the 2004 election, from 59 percent to 66 percent. The West, Northeast and Midwest had smaller increases in black voting rates, but they did not represent a significant change, the Census said.
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Political scientists and voting rights advocates said the jump in the number of Southern black voters was larger than in other regions because African Americans there had historically voted at lower rates than blacks outside the South. In 2008, only the Midwest had a higher black turnout rate, at 67 percent, and the West and Northeast lagged behind the South.
Of course, even with the jump, it remains the case that black voting rates are held down artificially by the huge number of African-Americans affected by felon disenfranchisement laws. Thirteen percent of African-American men — 1.4 million — are disenfranchised. In ten states, more than one in five black men are disenfranchised, and in seven of those states, one in four black are permanently disenfranchised. In several of those states — Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Virginia and Maryland — African-Americans make up a significant portion of the voting age population.
While I doubt that you could ever get the black voting rate above 70 percent (indeed, the same goes for the overall voting rate), it is unconscionable that such a huge number of American citizens are forbidden from exercising their fundamental right, despite the fact that they have paid society’s due for their crimes. Of course, the system of felon disenfranchisement — along with the broader system of legalized discrimination against ex-convicts — was meant to do exactly this: restrict the freedom of marginalized communities. But, I’ll deal with that later.
Read more@http://trueslant.com/jamellebouie/2010/05/13/a-quick-aside-on-african-american-voting-rates/
