Black early voting turnout falls in key battleground states

Early voting turnout for black voters in key battleground states has fallen from 2012, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

{mosads}In North Carolina, where presidential candidates Hillary Clinton (D) and Donald Trump (R) are in a tight race, black turnout is down 16 percent from this point in 2012, while white turnout is up 15 percent.

And in Florida, black voters’ share of the early voting turnout is 15 percent, 10 points lower than it was in 2012. Clinton and Trump are also locked in a tight race in that state.

The drop in early voting comes after black turnout soared in President Obama’s two electoral wins. 

Electing the first black president in U.S. history in 2008 and securing his reelection four years later inspired heavy turnout among black voters in both elections. 

Clinton is also popular with black voters, but she does not appear to be inspiring the level of enthusiasm and support that was behind Obama.

Many on the left also point to early voting restrictions imposed by a GOP-controlled state legislature as the reason for the downturn. A 2013 Supreme Court decision that overturned certain provisions of the Voting Rights Act allowed states like North Carolina to implement restrictions that cut down on early voting.

The Times reported that in Guilford County, the number of early voting sites was cut from 16 in 2012 to just one this year. In the first 12 days of early voting in the county 88,383 ballots have been cast this year, down from 100,761 in 2012.

That could also give Democrats hope that they can make up for the drop in early voting by blacks on Election Day. 

But in Florida, early voting has been extended since 2012, indicating that the lower turnout may signal a dampened enthusiasm among black voters.