African-Americans Vote Absentee Ballot Less Than Most

A few days ago we gave you statistics about the number of black college students who were using absentee ballots to vote in this year’s Presidential Election. But, it’s not only black college students who are less likely to vote-by-mail than other racial groups, but the same is true for African-Americans of all ages.

Vote-By-Mail By Age
Kei Kawashima- Ginsberg, the lead researcher at the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) said regardless of age, African-Americans like to vote in person. Statistics from the Census Bureau’s Current Population survey show that the vote-by-mail numbers for blacks were far lower than whites:

• For blacks ages 18-24 (not just college students), 7.9% voted by mail and 7.6% of blacks ages 25+ voted by mail.
• 17.8% of white voters voted by mail and 17.6% of whites ages 25+ voted by mail.

However, there is one voting trend that is the same for both blacks and whites: Early voting is more common among older voters than younger voters:

• 24.4% of black voters ages 18-24 voted early compared to 31.8% of black voters over age 25.
• 26.2% of white voters ages 18-24 voted compared to 29.9% of white voters over 25+.

Looking Back at Election ‘08
Despite the low percentage of black student voters who voted by mail, the turnout for black college students at the November 2008 election was higher than college students of other races and ethnicities. In general, blacks turned out at high rate making us the group with the highest turn out at polls:

• 67.1 % of black college students voted compared to 59.9% of whites, 55.6% of Latinos and 45.0 % of college students.
• African-Americans usually turnout at a high rate. For ages 18-24 (regardless of enrollment), African-Americans had the top turnout rate at 56.1% compared to 49.4% of whites, 38.8% of Latinos and 48.5% overall.

Obama and Voting Outreach
Kawashima-Ginsberg said in the 2008 election Obama placed people in different communities and played a large role on encouraging Americans to vote. The campaign was also successful in encouraging the younger, ethnic minority youth to vote than young white voters:

• 45% of blacks were voting for the first time compared to 37% of white voters and 61% of Latino voters.

Kawashima-Ginsberg said it’s hard to predict the 2012 Election outcome, but for some young black voters, the excitement of having a black President seems to have worn off.
“More black voters seem disappointed in Obama,” said Kawashima Ginsberg. “Black voters are less excited about the election ages 18-29 and are less likely to vote.”