If black voters, especially young ones, do not speak just as forcefully in voting booths as they do on Twitter , they should remove the phrase “Black Lives Matter” from their vocabularies.
When Secretary of State Tom Schedler’s office released early-voting tallies from last week, which was limited by Veterans Day, “runoff turnout was 16 percent higher than in the primary.”
Political science studies have found higher turnout in most cases, favors Democratic candidates, and here, that story seems to be true. The partisan breakdown of the voting in this race was “52-35 percent Democrat/Republican.”
A large caveat must be examined before any John Bel Edwards supporters become as riled up as they were at the final debate.
There’s a large amount of Southern whites who haven’t updated their voting registrations since the Democratic machine in this state became defunct. These whites are conservative to the bone, wishing for the days of Reagan/Bush ’84, barely voted for Clinton in ’96 and scoff at the idea that President Obama represents “their America.”
Therefore, relying on partisan registration alone, fails to provide a full picture polling stations across the state. The racial makeup of those early voting gives a better understanding of exactly what kind of Democratic voters are going to the polls.
“The racial composition of the early voters was 68-30 percent white/black in the runoff,” and this almost perfectly lines up with Louisiana’s electoral makeup where the split amongst whites and blacks is 66 percent to 31 percent.
The path to the Governor’s Mansion for Edwards is to garner about 30 percent of the white vote and then make up the rest with the heavily Democratic black, Hispanic and Asian vote. By extrapolating from the early numbers alone, it seems white voters are doing their part to elect Edwards.
With northern Louisiana voters not significantly turning out during early voting, Baptists and Pentecostals do not seem to be the saving grace David Vitter hoped they would become.
Now, it is up to black voters to hold up their end of the bargain up on Election Day.
Edwards hreached out to minorities, visited where they live and openly touted issues, to aid the black citizens.
There’s more to social activism than knowing the right hashtag or sharing articles on your Facebook so everyone can see how upset you are about alleged injustices. Recognizing the issues which directly affect black lives and going to the polls to exercise a right people died for is a true commitment to one’s race.
Complaints ring high whenever the issue of minority representation in the government rises as a discussion, but the minute any reference to the lack of black voter turnout is brought up, people are shouted down as uncompassionate.
Louisiana, unlike some states in the Midwest, does not have issues with minority voters not having access to the proper voting materials. The only potential roadblock now is some will not feel like voting on Saturday morning.
Frankly, these same people, one week later, will rush to New Orleans for the Bayou Classic.
If attendance at the Bayou Classic does not mirror black turnout in this race, shame on all who claim and cling to the ideology of #BlackLivesMatter but yet do not exercise their right to vote for the candidate who has their lives in his foresight.
Garrett Hines is a 21-year-old political science from Monroe, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter @garrettH_TDR.