Blacks May Have Outperformed Whites at the Ballot Box

Pew attributes possible feat to nation's first black presidential candidate and shrinking white voter turnout.

An analysis by the Pew Research Center has found that during Election 2012, African Americans may have voted at higher rates than whites for the first time. Available data suggest that while African-Americans made up 12 percent of eligible voters, they accounted for 13 percent of all votes cast. Paul Taylor, director of the Pew Social and Demographic Trends project, said that this feat indicates that the voting gap between blacks and whites is gradually closing. He said 2008 was the first time the white-black voter turnout had such a narrow gap. Taylor attributes the narrowing of the gap to changes in voter-identification laws, the candidacy of the first black candidate, and the shrinking voter turnout rate among white voters. The Pew report noted that the white voter turnout rate declined by 1.1 percentage points between 2004 and 2008. (Ebony)

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