The African American Vote: Impact on United States Presidential Elections

Abstract

In recent years, the number of African Americans registering and actually voting in national elections has increased significantly. In some states, particularly in the South, the percentage of African Americans actually registered to vote has increased by more than 70 percent since the 1960's. In addition, the number of African Americans in the United States has increased dramatically during this time period. Clearly, these changes in political participation and demographics have an impact on local state and national elections. In the contemporary perspective, very few studies examine the specific impact of the African American vote on presidential elections. This paper is an attempt to better understand the extent to which African Americans influence the outcome of presidential elections and focuses primarily on African American voter participation in key electoral states.