Thursday, October 2, 2008

Breakdown of Early Voters by Ethnicity and Gender

Camden Democrats,
We’ve been telling people to vote early, and these first returns from the past week gives us some big reasons why we should continue stressing this. Prior to the next early voting week of October 27, you can still request absentee ballots, and we need to encourage people to do that. In addition, and this is VERY important, we have done an incredible job of registering new voters, but many may not know all the rules about voting protocol. First, it is important they know where their voting precinct is located, and second, it is extremely important that they know NOT to show ANY campaign shirts, buttons, or other paraphernalia. If they have bumper stickers on their cars, they must park at least 150 feet from the polling place. If they violate any of these rules they will be turned away until they correct the violations. We know what will happen if they are turned away; they simply will not return to vote, and that is not what we want to happen. Things are looking very bright at the moment, so let’s do everything we can to ensure all our hard work to this point bears lots of fruit.

Dave Southern
Chairman, Democrats of Camden County

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Breakdown of Early Voters by ethnicity and gender
Wednesday, October 1, 2008From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Political InsiderBy Jim Galloway

Has the Obama surge begun? Nearly 40 percent of early votes cast by African-Americans
As of Monday, 135,412 ballots had been cast in Georgia for the Nov. 4 general election, whether by absentee or early in-person voting.

Nearly 40 percent of those voters — 53,160 — have been African-American, according to the office of Secretary of State Karen Handel.

It is this kind of intensity, driven by the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, that has worried Georgia Republicans and stirred the hopes of Democrats in the state.
As of Aug. 31, African-Americans, the most reliable demographic in the Democratic base, made up 29 percent of those registered to vote. However, their participation rate in elections traditionally is several points lower.

After a full week of early voting statewide, the highest performing counties are: DeKalb, with 14,560 votes cast; Fulton, 10,599; Gwinnett, 7,952; Cobb, 7,021; Chatham, 4,771. All have significant minority populations.

Matt Carrothers, spokesman for Handel, said in addition to the 135,412 ballots already cast, another 105,526 have been mailed out but not returned.

Handel wants at least 1 million Georgia voters to cast early ballots, and it’s easy to see why. If, as expected, 85 percent of the state’s 5.5 million voters head to the polls on Nov. 4, Georgia’s 3,000 polling stations could be overwhelmed.

Granted, the math says that each station would only have to handle a little more than 1,500 over a 12-hour period, but people aren’t spread out like that.

Because Georgia is a state covered by the Voting Rights Act, with a history of racial discrimination, officials are required to take into account whether their actions affect the ballot rights of minorities.

To do that, the race and sex of all voters is requested upon registration, but giving it is not mandatory, according to Handel’s web site. This is the only demographic information obtained and, since voters aren’t required to register by party, the only clue that analysts have about who is voting.

Here’s the complete breakdown of advance voters offered by Handel’s office:
— Black female: 32,865;
— Black male: 20,295;
— White female: 40,860;
— White male: 36,958;
— Female Asian-Pacific island: 239;
— Male Asian-Pacific island: 188;
— Female Hispanic-Latino: 304;
— Male Hispanic-Latino: 253;
— Female Native American: 12;
— and Male Native American: 10.

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