Calculations indicate that the black electorate is finally being more proactive, from a political standpoint, in order to try to manifest their political aspirations to attain statewide offices that are all white in 2014.
A considerably larger share of black Georgia voters have cast their early ballots in this year’s general election than they did during the 2010 midterm elections and nearly matching the numbers of 2012 when they helped reelect President Obama.
Better Georgia polling shows that, with 33.1 percent of early votes cast, black balloters nearly match their turnout of 2012, when President Obama was up for re-election. Black voters then cast 29.2 percent of early ballots.
White voters make up a smaller percentage of early 2014 votes than the demographic did in 2010. Ballots cast by whites make up 62 percent of the total. They were 67 percent of the early voting electorate in 2010, and comprised 60.5 percent in 2012, says AlterNet.org.
Better Georgia compiled this graphic (show above) showing that 31.2% of early voters were African American, and 54.9% were women.
Better Georgia shows that in 2010, the white share of the early vote electorate was 63% – meaning it has actually gone down in 2014. Conversely the black share in 2010 was 29%. In raw numbers, 15,683 black voters early voted in 2010, in 2014, with several days of early voting yet to come, 206,670 black voters had already voted by this past Tuesday.
“It’s clear that Georgia’s 2014 election will not be the same as 2010. We’re not just seeing more voters, we’re seeing improved diversity across the state,” says Bryan Long, Executive Director of Better Georgia told the publication. “If it holds through election day, we expect the change in the electorate will lead to a change in results on election night. Progressive voters in Georgia are turning out in record numbers because we have candidates who have engaged on issues like education and jobs.”
About Post Author
