David Hill, The Hill
- A lot of experts are starting to anticipate a sharp rise in voter turnout among African-Americans this November, fueled by pride in Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) candidacy. The specter of this surge is frightening a lot of incumbent Republican officeholders who think they will be drowned in a rising tide of African-American voters.
This panic over impending black, mostly Democrat, turnout may not be entirely justified.
First, this fear is often based on the incorrect assumption that black turnout is normally lackluster. The hard numbers contradict this supposition. According to the Census Bureau’s post-election study, “Voting and Registration in the Election of 2004,” approximately 87 percent of registered blacks cast a ballot that year.
