Young Black Turnout a Record in 2008 Election

MARY McGUIRT, ABC News

- In the historic 2008 presidential election, blacks had the highest turnout among voters aged 18-24, something that has never before occurred in our nation’s history, data released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau showed.

According to the new data, nearly 131 million people reported voting in November’s election, an increase of about 5 million from 2004. The researchers found that the increase was almost entirely attributed to minority voters.

Barack Obama was elected the first African American president, with 52.9 percent of the vote compared with Sen. John McCain’s 45.7 percent.

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Minority, young voters pushed 2008 turnout

Five million more U.S. residents voted in the 2008 U.S. presidential election than did so in 2004, led by minorities and young voters, the U.S. officials say.

About 131 million people reported voting last November, up from the 126 million who went to the polls in the previous presidential election, U.S. Census Bureau numbers indicated. The increased turnout included about 2 million more African-American voters, 2 million more Hispanic voters and about 600,000 more Asian voters, while the number of non-Hispanic white voters remained statistically unchanged, the bureau said in a release.

“The 2008 presidential election saw a significant increase in voter turnout among young people, blacks and Hispanics,” said Thom File, a voting analyst with the Census Bureau’s Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division. “But as turnout among some other demographic groups either decreased or remained unchanged, the overall 2008 voter turnout rate was not statistically different from 2004.”

Young voters between ages 18 and 24 were the only age group to show a significant increase in turnout, reaching 49 percent in 2008 compared with 47 percent in 2004, with black young people logging the highest turnout at 55 percent, fully 8 percent higher than in 2004.

UPI

Franken sworn in as Minnesota senator

Comedian-turned-politician Al Franken is now a senator.

The Minnesota Democrat was sworn in Tuesday, ending an eight-month political and legal struggle. He gives the Democrats 60 votes to thwart possible Republican filibusters.

Vice President Joe Biden administered the oath. Former Vice President Walter Mondale accompanied Franken.

The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in Franken’s favor after a protracted recount. His opponent, former Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, then conceded.

Franken took the oath on a Bible that belonged to the family of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn.

Henry C. Jackson, AP

Minn. court rules for Franken in Senate fight

The Minnesota Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered that Democrat Al Franken be certified as the winner of the state’s long-running Senate race, paving the way for a resolution in the seven-month fight over the seat.

The high court rejected a legal challenge from Republican Norm Coleman, whose options for regaining the Senate seat are dwindling.

Justices said Franken is entitled to the election certificate he needs to assume office. With Franken and the usual backing of two independents, Democrats will have a big enough majority to overcome Republican filibusters.

Coleman hasn’t ruled out seeking federal court intervention.

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said the earliest Franken would be seated is next week because the Senate is out of session for the July 4 holiday.

Franken, a former Saturday Night Live star making the leap from life as a left-wing author and radio talker to the Senate, planned a news conference later Tuesday and didn’t immediately comment.

Coleman’s campaign didn’t immediately return a call for comment. Nor did Gov. Tim Pawlenty, whose signature is required on the election certificate Franken needs to be seated.

Pawlenty, a Republican, has said he would sign the certificate if ordered to do so by the court. The court’s ruling stopped short of explicitly ordering the governor to sign the document, saying only that Franken was “entitled” to it.

Coleman’s appeal hinged largely on whether thousands of absentee votes had been unfairly rejected by local election officials around the state.

The unanimous court wrote that “because the legislature established absentee voting as an optional method of voting, voters choosing to use that method are required to comply with the statutory provisions.”

They went on to say that “because strict compliance with the statutory requirements for absentee voting is, and always has been required, there is no basis on which voters could have reasonably believed that anything less than strict compliance would suffice.”

BRIAN BAKST, AP

Oprah Told Not To Mention Edwards Mistress By Name in Interview

Elizabeth Edwards tells talk show host Oprah Winfrey that it’s a “complicated question” if she still is in love with her husband, former presidential candidate and U.S. Sen John Edwards, after his admitted affair.

In an episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” to air Thursday, Winfrey asks Edwards, “Are you still in love with him?”

Edwards responds, “You know, that’s a complicated question,” in an excerpt provided in advance to The Associated Press by Harpo Productions.

Winfrey also asks Edwards, “Is it a day by day thing?” And Edwards says, “Neither one of us is out the door so I guess it’s day by day, but maybe it’s month by month.”

The talk-show host visited the Edwards family at the Chapel Hill, N.C., home where the couple live with their children, Cate, Jack and Emma Claire. Winfrey interviewed Elizabeth Edwards about her relationship with her husband, his affair and her battle with terminal cancer. The interview will appear on Winfrey’s television show and there will be a companion piece in the June issue of “O” magazine.

Elizabeth Edwards’ memoir “Resilience” is to be published this month.

A Harpo spokeswoman said the only caveat to the interview was that Winfrey could not mention John Edwards’ mistress, videographer Rielle Hunter, by name. Winfrey also spoke with John Edwards, however excerpts of his interview were not provided.

John Edwards went public with the affair in August after the National Enquirer reported he was the father of Hunter’s daughter. He has denied paternity.

Elizabeth Edwards addressed that speculation with Winfrey.

“That’s what I understand,” Edwards said. “I’ve seen a picture of the baby. I have no idea. It doesn’t look like my children but I don’t have any idea.”

She also describes Hunter as being different from both her and her husband.

“We’re basically old-fashioned people,” Edwards said in “O” magazine. “So, this was a pretty big leap for him. Maybe it’s being so different is what was attractive.”

Edwards was laying the groundwork for a presidential campaign when he hired Hunter to shoot videos of him. He said the affair with Hunter began and ended that year, although Hunter was seen on the campaign trail until the final days of 2006.

Edwards wrote in her new book that news of her husband’s affair made her cry, scream and throw up in a bathroom. She told Winfrey she had asked her husband for one gift when they were married 31 years ago.

“I wanted him to be faithful to me,” Edwards said. “It was enormously important to me.”

AP

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