[...] Also turning out in heavy numbers, or at least more enthusiastically than in the past, were African Americans, who were motivated by a unique combination of circumstances that has been building since 2000.
One was simply anger still simmering from the results of Florida's election. Black leaders throughout the nation had made election reform a major political priority throughout 2001 and 2002, getting significant safeguards enacted and vowing they would do all they could to never let the Florida controversy happen again.
At the same time, Bush stirred extraordinary anger among many black voters. Throughout his presidency, he would not visit the influential NAACP convention, and had icy relations with the Congressional Black Caucus.
Black politicians read this as an affront, an unnecessary slap at some of their most respected institutions - and their constituencies.
But the huge turnout may have been driven most by Iraq and a controversy in Ohio.
"You look who goes to Iraq. There are always more people of color," said Rev. Harold Moore, a Milwaukee civil rights activist.
In Ohio, the legal struggle over Republican efforts to challenge votes continued throughout Tuesday, with the U.S. Supreme Court refusing to overturn a lower court ruling allowing GOP challengers to be present.
The controversy stoked resentment in the swing state's black community, and may have had the unintended effect of increasing turnout. The black vote in Ohio accounts for about 9 percent of the total, and exit polls indicated that roughly 84 percent were favoring Kerry. That helped offset a 6 percentage point Bush advantage among the state's white voters. [...]
| That's the part of David Lightman's Hartford Courant article "On edge" that sticks with us
posted in articles on November 3, 2004 3:04 AM | t (0)
« Previous phile: Why are black people paranoid? Ask me again on Nov. 3.
» Next phile: 'Where were they? The same place they had always been on sex: silent and hiding.'
Return to top of page