Blacks roll to polls: Estimated 3 million new voters came out

Special Report November 4, 2004

by Richard Muhammad

For BlackAmericaWeb.Com

President George W. Bush holds election victory press conference in the Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building  Nov. 4. Photo:  White House

Black voters came out in significant numbers to cast ballots in Nov. 2 presidential and congressional elections, according to political observers and activists.

“There was an effort to turn out the black vote and the black vote turned out,” David Bositis of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies told BlackAmericaWeb.com. Blacks cast about 11.5 percent of all votes, said Bositis. Based on estimates that 120 million people cast ballots this election, blacks accounted for an estimated 13.6 million votes, he said.

These numbers suggest an additional three million blacks voted, compared to the 2000 election, Bositis said.

Blacks cast 10.5 million votes in 2000, about 10 percent of all 105 million votes cast, said Bositis.

“Our folks turned out and we as a community – especially our young people – showed up at the ballot box,” said Melanie Campbell, executive director of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. Her organization worked with hip hop, fraternal, church, community, and civil rights groups, Black Entertainment Television, syndicated radio personality Tom Joyner, the UniverSoul Circus and others to register one million new voters.

In battleground states like Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, black voting was up substantially, said Bositis.   

He added, “The problem that Kerry had in Ohio was not that black turnout wasn’t good enough, but that that 16 percent of black voters in Ohio voted for Bush.”

Bositis believes that an anti-gay marriage amendment on the ballot in Ohio helped increase black support for Bush. Bush saw a slight improvement likely tied to ballot initiatives on gay marriage in a few places, Bositis said, and his faith-based initiative has made some black ministers at least speak favorably of the president.

Ron Walters, director of the African American Leadership Institute at the University of Maryland, said that black turnout was generally heaviest in the battleground states. Though moderate Republican Arlen Specter likely retained his Pennsylvania Senate seat over a conservative Democrat with black support, most Senate races elsewhere were not in areas with significant black populations, Walters said.

Democrats did however continue to benefit from black support, though John Kerry’s presidential bid failed.

“If you look at the map of the country and the areas where the Democrats won, the blue states are states with large urban centers. Because of the participation of black voters, we didn’t see the wipeout (GOP) landslide that we saw in 1972, 1980, 1984 and near landslide in 1988,” said Steven Taylor, an assistant professor of government at American University in Washington D.C.

Overwhelming, black support in urban areas helped Democrats stay in office, he said. Taylor also said that urban voters have brought states like Illinois, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Michigan into the Democratic column. In past elections, Republicans Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr., carried those states, he said.

Heavy black turnout likely helped keep Democratic losses in the House to four seats, put a black man, Barack Obama of Illinois, in the Senate, and increased the Congressional Black Caucus, with former Mayor Emmanuel Cleaver winning a seat in Missouri and Gwen Moore winning a House seat in Wisconsin, said several political analysts. All three winners are Democrats.

It’s also hard to say if more black votes would have meant a Kerry victory, said Walters. Blacks increased their voting percentage by nearly 2 points and delivered Pennsylvania and Michigan, he noted. Blacks closed the gap between the number of votes it took win and the number of unregistered voters, but expecting 90-percent turnout is unrealistic, said the political scientist.

Moderate whites and Hispanics increased their numbers, said Walters, but gave more support to Bush.

“You can’t bash black voters,” said Walters. “Kerry didn’t energize his base. Bush fired his base up.”

This story was written for BlackAmericaWeb.Com, do not re-print without permission. See more at BlackAmericaWeb.Com
END

Comments

[mel cost]

I"m trying to find out the actual number of black voters that voted for Bush in Ohio,
Because if it's more than 150,000,
then they provided the margin for Bush's victory.

[Nadia]

Hi, does any one know how many people register to vote in 2004, also how many people in New York registered to vote in 2004. If you do please email me back with any infomation.

Thank you for your time.