Wednesday, May 8, 2013

The United States had a political milestone in November 2012

Black people voted at a higher rate than whites for the first time in history. It was close, with blacks at 66.2% and whites at 64.1%, but long-term trends in both groups suggest that it can't solely be chalked up to black voters turning out for Obama. Turnout has steadily increased among blacks from 53% in 1996, while the percentage for whites has declined since peaking with George Bush's re-election in 2004. Latinos and Asian-Americans, meanwhile, had a quirk in their results. Among Latinos, the overall number of voters rose by 1.4 million to about 11 million, but the percentage of eligible voters who turned out dropped slightly to 48%. The same was true for Asian-Americans; overall numbers rose, but turnout fell to 47.3%. If the GOP wants to have any chance of winning a presidential election in future it must both put an end to non-white immigration and find ways to boost white voter turnout.

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