1) How does anyone know a voter's racial identity for the purposes of voting except for the voter's self-identification with particular demographics? I am African American and a Woman; however, because of a long history of NC GOP voter suppression and obstruction tactics aimed at minorities, I switched my "identification" to "UNDESIGNATED" for race/gender/ethnicity. I have already voted. Am I showing up in the AA vote total? I don't know how I would. Consider how many other AA voters may have thought along the same lines that I did and changed their demographic information. See also that I checked the demographics for both of my adult and voting daughters. One of them is listed as "two or more races," and the other is listed as "White". If you were to ask them are they an AA voter, each would certainly answer in the affirmative.
2) While Mills states that the data is coming from the State Board of Elections, he indicates that he's using Carolina Vote Tracker at carolinaelections.com/tracker to compare data from election to election. I notice that that site is "a Project of the John Locke Foundation." Suffice to say that I don't trust the John Locke Foundation as far as I can throw them (and I can't throw for crap), and I refuse to place much stock in their numbers or reporting.
Let's all take a collective breath. Do not panic. Keep organizing, encouraging, working on, and celebrating people actually voting in the African American community and beyond. We've got this.
You make a very good point about Voter suppression impacting how people fill out their voter registration forms.
I have done two shifts as a poll greeter - Sat. morning and Mon. afternoon - and there certainly has not been any shortage of AA women voting at this polling place. And the ones who stopped to talk to me were certainly fired up!
I also volunteered Sunday afternoon as a poll observer at this same location and "souls to the polls" was alive and well! I'll be volunteering again this coming Sunday, but I've been scheduled at a different polling place.
I have a couple of observations:
1) How does anyone know a voter's racial identity for the purposes of voting except for the voter's self-identification with particular demographics? I am African American and a Woman; however, because of a long history of NC GOP voter suppression and obstruction tactics aimed at minorities, I switched my "identification" to "UNDESIGNATED" for race/gender/ethnicity. I have already voted. Am I showing up in the AA vote total? I don't know how I would. Consider how many other AA voters may have thought along the same lines that I did and changed their demographic information. See also that I checked the demographics for both of my adult and voting daughters. One of them is listed as "two or more races," and the other is listed as "White". If you were to ask them are they an AA voter, each would certainly answer in the affirmative.
2) While Mills states that the data is coming from the State Board of Elections, he indicates that he's using Carolina Vote Tracker at carolinaelections.com/tracker to compare data from election to election. I notice that that site is "a Project of the John Locke Foundation." Suffice to say that I don't trust the John Locke Foundation as far as I can throw them (and I can't throw for crap), and I refuse to place much stock in their numbers or reporting.
Let's all take a collective breath. Do not panic. Keep organizing, encouraging, working on, and celebrating people actually voting in the African American community and beyond. We've got this.
You make a very good point about Voter suppression impacting how people fill out their voter registration forms.
I have done two shifts as a poll greeter - Sat. morning and Mon. afternoon - and there certainly has not been any shortage of AA women voting at this polling place. And the ones who stopped to talk to me were certainly fired up!
I also volunteered Sunday afternoon as a poll observer at this same location and "souls to the polls" was alive and well! I'll be volunteering again this coming Sunday, but I've been scheduled at a different polling place.