The Washington Post recently published a story (“Voter registration down among Hispanics, blacks” May 4th, 2012) that inaccurately claimed that the number of African American and Hispanic registered voters has fallen sharply since 2008; it has not.
One of the most important successes of the historic 2008 campaign was the Obama-Biden ticket’s ability to expand the electorate—not just with first-time voters, but with eligible voters who for the first time felt they were being heard. Just as they are this time around, the President and Vice President ran four years ago on the belief that we are greater together, and that the more voices there are in the political process, the better we are. After all, the right to vote and choose our leaders is at the heart of what it means to be an American.
In 2008 we saw participation increase across the board—more young voters, more older voters, more black voters, more Hispanic voters, more white voters. And they realize that voting once isn’t enough; to bring about real and lasting change, we need to stay involved throughout 2012 and vote in November.
The supporters who make this grassroots campaign what it is understand that principle. Unfortunately, sometimes the media does not.
The analysis on which the Post based its mistaken claim is fundamentally flawed in several ways. Let’s look at a few of them:
First, the Census data the article cited is 18 months old—it’s from November 2010, the month of the last midterm elections.Since that time, more than 1.4 million African Americans and more than 1.2 million Latinos have registered to vote.
SOURCE: The Real Voter Registration Numbers | Black America Web.