African-American Voting Behavior

Voting Behavior: America’s Diverse Demographics

Ashley Colagiacomi

Palm Beach State College

Abstract

The most interesting question about elections is not who won the election, but why they were elected. One has to consider the source of the person voting, and what has made them who they are, which leads to their political values. One also has to analyze how voting patterns change over time, and due to what cultural reasons. The United States Census, and many other organizations keep track of demographic information of voters. This helps political scientists come up with predictions for where American politics is moving. By understanding voter behavior, political scientists try to conclude key-factors in finding why people vote

African-American voting rates were severely low due to extreme discrimination until the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Poll taxes, literacy tests, and intimidation kept blacks from voting. Eventually civil rights protests and litigation abolished many of the barriers blacks faced when trying to vote. Today, African-American citizens vote as often, if not more than white people who share similar socioeconomic backgrounds, and are the most involved minority in the American political process. Blacks indicated one of the highest levels of voter registration and participation in elections with a sixty-five percent turnout, compared with sixty-six percent of white voters

A great example of this are the christian right,who believe in many of the republican conservative ideas, voting seventy-seven percent republican. The christian right was formed around the white evangelical protestants conservative viewpoints. Voters who a part of the christian right or white evangelicals believe that prayer should still be incorporated in schools, they are against the legalization of homosexual marriage, and against contraception and abortion. About fifteen percent of the electorate supports the christian right. The christian right has one of the highest voter turnout rates of all religions because they strongly believe in their viewpoints. Republicans are the party of white evangelical christians. Meanwhile, democrats are comprised of a mix of religious minorities and the religiously unaffiliated, voting seventy percent democratic. The widening divide over religious and moral values continues to separate the republican and democratic parties. During the 2012 election, sixty-nine percent of people who attended church weekly voted republican, compared to only forty-one percent who do not attend church. Although blacks and hispanics who attend church weekly still tend to vote more democratic. Public Religion Research Institute reports that eighty-eight percent of black protestants and sixty-five percent hispanic catholics support democratic candidates