Early Voting Statistics

The percentage of African-Americans and Hispanics who voted in 2008 for the Democratic party was significantly higher than in the 2000 or 2004 election. This graph depicts how the percentage of African-Americans who voted in 2008 (Barak Obama) increased from 88% in 2004 to 95% in 2008. The percentage of Hispanics who voted for the Democratic party from 2004 to 2008 also jumped 14%. A reason for this increase in voter turnout is because Hispanic and African-American voters felt that Barak Obama, the Democratic Presidential candidate, was more capable of solving the problems these minorities felt than a Republican candidate would be.

The article “The 2004 Campaign: The Hispanic Vote” tells me that the American Political System discriminates against Hispanics but i the end relies on their vote, because they have a lot of potential power in determining their states’ electoral college. The role that the minorities play in the election is what way their state of New Mexico will lean in the election because they make up about 42% of the population, although they could “set the stage for battle” in many states such as, Arizona, Nevada and Florida.

All through Alabama a wide range of harsh techniques to keep Negroes from getting to be enrolled voters, and there are a few regions in which… not a solitary Negro is enlisted" This immediate assault on reality of Alabama in this time brings a harsher light to what happens and what is ignored to

Without a certain degree of control over the governmental levels of power, blacks end up disproportionately dependent on white-created legislation and white administration of those laws (Pohlmann, 219). The potential dangers of gerrymandering involves the distribution of blacks into districts where they are diluted into a minority or the creation of districts where blacks are an excessive majority so that an overall district majority white can be achieved (Thornburgh v. Gingles, 31). These redistricting plans severely hindered blacks ability to vote for a representative of their choice (1). However, in order to stem the progress of racially discriminating gerrymandering, these districts are examined based on the impact and district composition

But when voting booths are limited and people are forced to wait in long lines they tend to leave. To some that vote was faught for and needs to be preserved but for others they simply dont have the time of the day to leave work so if there is a line when that blue collar worker gets to his voting place he may not be able to afford to give up the appicable time to wait to vote becuase he has things at home or an even he has to be at. This a real problem the system faces today, in Arizonas 2016 primary certain poll places ran out of votes. Ultimately denying voters the right to vote. With new systems like internet voting being put in place in specific state primaries to determine if it woud be a possibility, but in the end this is just providing temporary fixes to a long term problem. Certain states in the Electoral College system get away with extending voting hours to appeal to blue collar demographics and raise voter turnout. This can be deemed to be not fair to other less important states that suffer the same issues the ones in swing states that have voting hours

Texas is known to have the lowest levels of voting participation in the nation. Numerous factors play a role in the voting inactivity within the state. For instance, some citizens may feel as if their ballot does not have any significance. Others may not have any interest in politics due to the lack of education on the subject or solidarity on issues within the political climate. In addition, age group or income can also be an effect. Citizens exercising their suffrage is important due to the interdependent relationship with our government. To increase voting participation and protect individual’s right to suffrage, there should be the establishment of practice in civic responsibilities and automatic registration, more in-depth teaching of

Even after the passing of the Fifteenth Amendment, African Americans were “disenfranchised in the South by intimidation and electoral trickery, including whites-only primaries, rigged literacy tests, and poll taxes” (Patterson 2011, p. 180). The Freedom Riders rode through the South, enduring harassment and imprisonment to encourage other African Americans to vote. Voter turnout in African American communities is greatly encouraged. Personally, coming from an African American family, I was strongly encouraged by my parents and grandparents to vote when I was of legal age. My family instilled the importance of voting in me at a very young age. Although voter turnout among African Americans is still fairly low, in the 2008 presidential election African Americans had the second highest voter turnout, behind non-Hispanic Caucasians (African Americans, n.d.). Race can influence voter turnout because with African Americans specifically, although rates are getting better, they are still not high.

Author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness and an associate professor here at Ohio State, wrote an article “Why Hilary Clinton Doesn’t Deserve the Black Vote.” This article not only touches on how Hilary Clinton is only using black people as her “winning card (Alexander, 2)” in the 2016 Election, but also her past decisions she made as the wife of the 42nd President of the United States that should be taken into consideration by black voters. Mrs. Clinton and Bernie Sanders are the two Democratic Party presidential candidates. Although Bernie Sanders promises “a political revolution that will bring universal healthcare, a living wage, an end to rampant Wall Street greed, and the dismantling of the vast prison state...(Alexander, 5),” Hilary Clinton seems to be receiving all of the black votes, according to recent polls. Alexander explains that because many African Americans believed (and still believe) that Bill Clinton was the first “black president,” Ms. Clinton will receive several black votes.

“The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.” In the 1880’s poll taxes and literacy requirements that afterward advocated African Americans to vote. Meanwhile Klan violence frightens from police and employers, blacks were still “protesting”about voting rights. As a result, there were over two dozen blacks serving in state congress across some

The topic of race, redistricting, and minority representation in Congress has emerged as one of the most salient issues in contemporary political thought. The creation of so‑called majority minority districts has been attacked as unfair and racially polarizing by some observers and ultimately struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The study of race in relation to American politics and institutions, and, in particular, to the institution of Congress, has produced a wealth of research and literature in recent years. This scope of budding research ranges from legislative activity and Congressional voting to the electoral process and campaigning. This study examines the effects of

The three primary issues that I identified in this block’s readings are how racial attitudes drive policy preferences for white voters (particularly for welfare policy), how the 2008 election failed to usher in a new post-racial era in American politics as hoped, and how political science polling is struggling to accurately measure racial attitudes. In this essay I will highlight some of the findings in this unit’s readings that I found to be most profound and how they apply to my personal experiences and opinions.

Once African American’s were given the right to vote the infamous literacy tests became a prerequisite to vote in southern states. This was a nuisance to the African Americans because they were in place to put a barrier between African Americans and voting, these test were impossible for most African Americans. Another part of the voting process that became difficult and complicated for African Americans was the Application itself. The application differed from state to state but in order to fill it out completely the person would have to include personal information about themselves. Comparing the application to modern applications shows the intentions of the officials and how “important” the questions were.

In response to young people or rather more so young African Americans, who are eligible to vote. Many of them decided that they will not vote in this upcoming election, due to their disatisfaction with the presidential candidates. However according to New York Times writer Charles M. Blow this simple minded voting protest is rather “problematic and potentially self-destructive.” Many of the young African who are irritated with the police shootings feel that they should not vote, because of the corruption within their community. Blow in return to this stated “These judgeships alone could cast a long shadow.”

Matsubayashi and Ueda (2010) analyzed whether white voters used candidate race as a voting cues in an election between a white and Black candidate. The data were gathered from local precinct level

Voting has not always been as easy as it is today. It is interesting to examine how far America has progressed in its process of allowing different types of people to be able to vote. Voting was once aimed at a particular group of people, which were white males that owned their own property. Today, most people over the age of eighteen can vote, except for the mentally incompetent or people who have been convicted of major felonies in some states. The decline of voter participation has always been a debate in the public arena. According to McDonald and Popkin, it is “the most important, most familiar, most analyzed, and most conjectured trend in recent American political history (2001, 963)” The question is, how important is voter