NC: Record Breaking African American Voter Turnout
From a Daily Kos Diary:
Record Breaking African American Voter Turnout:
Now, where were we? Oh yeah:
30% of African Americans in North Carolina age 18+ have already voted.
That's 440,941 voters - 30% of North Carolina's entire 1,480,769 person African American voting age population counted by the Census Bureau in 2010.
That's not 30% of African American registered voters. That's 30% of all African American adults. Because, for one more week in North Carolina, you can register to vote and actually cast your ballot at the same time, all in one stop. So even if a would-be voter is not registered to vote right now, they can still register and vote.
But that 30% number will go much higher.
Because there's still another week of early voting left to go.
At this time in 2008, half of the African Americans who voted early had already voted. And so if we keep up at the pace we're going, another 440,000 African Americans in North Carolina will have voted by the end of the early voting period, bringing turnout up to about 60% of the North Carolina's total African American adult population.
Plus, then there's Election Day on top of that.
How high will turnout go on election day? I don't know, exactly. But I do know it'll be some really high, historic number. It'll certainly be much higher than 56.9%, which is the national U.S. Voting Age Population turnout rate from the 2008 election. At this rate, it'll be that high by election day, and some amount higher afterwards.
So regardless of exactly how African American turnout in NC goes, this is not the sort of voter turnout we normally see in America. This is more typical of the voter turnout we might see in some other country, like Australia, where there is always very near to 100% turnout (because not voting is illegal in Australia).
This is something special - something that doesn't happen very often.
Keep in mind that turnout in 2008 already shattered all previous records, by a long way. In October and November of 2008, African American voters in North Carolina flocked to the polls to help elect the first African American President in American history. They were fired up, ready to go, excited, hopeful, and just a few months ago had been the center of national attention as they delivered Barack Obama his 56-42 Democratic Primary win over Hillary Clinton.
By all reasonable expectations, it ought to be essentially impossible to increase turnout above the level of 2008 turnout.
And yet...
So far, African American turnout is up from 357,160 to 440,941 votes, a 23.5% increase over this same time in 2008.
If that is not an amazing statistic, then I'm afraid you are just not the sort of person who can possibly be amazed by statistics.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/29/1151889/-North-Carolina-Early-Voting-Day-11-30-of-NC-Af-Ams-Age-18-Have-Voted-New-Elon-Poll-Has-NC-Tied
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Thank you...
I'm starting to feel good about Nov 6. 
And hurrah for Carolina Blue!!!
MittMess!
