For The First Time In History, Black Americans Voted More Than Whites
A new study by the Census Bureau found that the participation rate of black voters in the 2012 presidential election exceeded the non-Hispanic white vote for the first time in history.
The black voter participation rate has been steadily rising for decades, while the non-Hispanic white voter participation rate has been steadily decreasing since 2004. According to the Census report, 66.2 percent of the black population voted in 2012, compared with 64.1 percent of whites.
Here's a look in chart form:
Black voters voted for President Barack Obama by a 93-7 margin, according to exit polls.
One other key takeaway from the report was that Hispanic and Latino populations have a strong potential to make a difference in future elections through a prolific increase in their participation rate, as noted by the Pew Research Center.
According to Pew:
Because of population growth, the number of Latinos who voted for president increased by about 1.4 million from 2008 to 2012, to a record 11.2 million, but the number of Latinos who were eligible but chose not to vote increased even more — by 2.3 million — from 9.8 million in 2008 to 12.1 million in 2012.
Non-whites were a record high 26% of voters in the 2012 election.