WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- African-American turnout in the Nov. 2 elections will be crucial to Democratic efforts to hold the U.S. Congress, elected officials and activists say.
Until 2008, blacks had always voted at lower rates than whites. But in the election of Barack Obama, the black turnout percentage exceeded that of whites by a fraction of 1 percentage point, the Census Bureau figures show.
"It's really not black turnout that matters; it's the gap between black and white turnout," David Bositis of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies told The New York Times. "If there's not much gap, the Democrats will hang on to the House."
Democratic officials worry about such a gap this year.
"The Republicans have the advantage in enthusiasm, no doubt about that," said Garland Pierce, an African-American minister and state legislator in North Carolina. "People just feel like there's nothing they can do about it."
Enthusiasm has been hard to sustain when black unemployment, at 16.1 percent, is nearly double that of whites, federal figures show.
"Many people have lost their jobs, they don't see the economy booming, and they feel there hasn't been much change," Florida state Sen. Al Lawson said.
