Persistent gaslighting - voting edition

From Everything Democrats Say About Georgia Election Law Is a Lie by Stephen Kruiser.  More of a partisan rant than a reasoned argument.  But not wrong.  

But it did bring to mind a persistent irony.  Democrats are wedded to the notion that there are disparities in voter registration by race and that this represents Republican voter suppression.  For near twenty years or more, this has been a materially suspect claim in most states.

It is true that there were major issues in registration differentials back before the sixties but through the seventies and eighties, voter registration campaigns were frequent and enthusiastic and differentials became smaller and smaller.

For the nation at large the White voter registration rate is 71.0% while that of Blacks is 63.7%, a 7.3% differential.  That is indeed a material gap, partially explained, but only partially, by the many states who restrict voting rights of felons.  Since African-Americans have higher rates of committing felonies (ex. 55% of all murders despite being only 13% of the population), this would have some impact on voting eligibility.

However, it is of note that there are some states where the registration rates of blacks exceed that of whites - Delaware, Georgia, and Mississippi for example.  

In addition, it should also be noted that fourteen states lack data for making race registration rate comparisons, typically those states with very low African-American populations.  Idaho would be an example where only 0.7% of the state population is African-American; or Hawaii where only 1.6% is African-American.

What is particularly striking, though, are the states where there are very high levels of disparate voting registration by race.  By size of differential in white versus African-American voting rates:

• USA - 7.3% - voter registration rate in favor of Whites

• Arizona - 19.1% voter registration rate in favor of Whites
• California - 11.4%
• Colorado - 25.6%
• District of Columbia - 13.7%
• Iowa - 15%
• Kansas - 24.6%
• Maryland - 11.3%
• Massachusetts - 15.3%
• Oklahoma - 17.5%
• Oregon - 10.7%
• Virginia - 10.7%
• Wisconsin - 15.3%

Twelve states/D.C. with double digit differentials in favor of white voters.  Of the twelve, only Iowa, Kansas, and Oklahoma are solidly Republican.  So nine of the states with the lowest registration rates of African-American voters compared to Whites are overwhelmingly or lean Democrat.  

Of the three states with voter registration favoring African-Americans, Delaware, Georgia and Mississippi, 2/3rds are solidly Republican.  

The sustained mainstream media claim that Republicans are trying to disenfranchise African-American voters is pretty hard to sustain when looking at these facts.  The numbers would seem to indicate that it is Democrats who are suppressing the Black vote.  

However, being registered to vote is only part of the process.  Of greater importance is actually choosing to vote.  You might call this differential the voter enthusiasm differential.  If all registered voters were equally enthusiastic to vote, there would be no gap.

Instead, there is a 6.9% voting enthusiasm gap between Whites and African-Americans in favor of Whites.  57.5% of White registered voters actually do vote whereas only 50.6% of African-American registered voters vote.  

And where is the enthusiasm gap the largest?  It is not an unfamiliar list.  New states added in italics.

• USA - 6.9% - gap in voting enthusiasm registration rate in favor of Whites

• Arizona - 14.4%
• California - 11.5%
• Colorado - 31.6%
• Connecticut - 9.4%
• District of Columbia - 15.0%
• Florida - 9.6%
• Iowa - 9.5%
• Kansas - 13.7%
• Maryland - 10.0%
• Massachusetts - 15.0%
• Missouri - 9.5%
• Nevada - 19.5%
• Oklahoma - 17.5%
• Oregon - 8.2%
• Virginia - 10.7%
• Washington - 19.8%
• Wisconsin - 20.8%

The list has expanded from twelve to sixteen.  Of the sixteen, eleven are solidly Democratic states, 69%.

For both voter registration and for actual voting participation, the data suggests that Democratic states are by far more likely to suppress the African-American vote, both in terms of registration as well as in terms of actual voting.

That's not what you hear in the mainstream media though.  No room there for facts I guess.