Crucial minority voters will play major role in elections

In one of the closest presidential races in recent history,
minority voter turnout will have a strong bearing on whether George
W. Bush or Al Gore wins the White House.

Historically, voter turnout among minorities has been lower than
that of whites.

Statistics show that in the last presidential election in 1996,
only 44.3 percent of Latino and 53.0 percent of African American
eligible citizens voted, compared to 60.7 percent of white citizens
who voted, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Some students said poor voter turnout among African American
students results from a lack of a better candidate.

“No candidate serves our needs; they do more of a
disservice than a service” said Noni Limar, external public
relations director of the African Student Union. “Once we
have candidates that serve the needs of our community, there will
be more African American voters.”

With the electoral race in a statistical dead heat, civil rights
groups are saying that minority turnout will play a critical role
in the election.

“If you look at battleground states in this election,
minority turnout can and will have an affect,” said Lisa
Navarrete, spokeswoman for the National Council of La Raza, the
nation’s largest Latino civil rights organization.
“Every vote will count.”

In states like New Mexico, where the presidential race is too
close to call, Latinos make up a third of the eligible voting
population and supply California with 16 percent of its total
population, Navarrete said.

For Gore, the vote from the African American community will be
extremely important as well, said Mark Sawyer, assistant professor
of political science with the Center for African American
Studies.

“If we see an unexpectedly high voter turnout, it will
turn the tide and Gore will pull out a victory,” he said.

Although 5 to 7 percent of voters are still undecided at this
point, Sawyer said Democrats have shifted their attention to
African American voters, who presently are more likely to vote
Democratic.

“Nine out of 10 likely African-American voters will vote
for Al Gore,” Sawyer said.

But often, African American and Latino voters are less likely to
cast their ballot as compared to whites for a number of reasons,
according to a 1996 U.S. Census Bureau report, which found that
minorities tend to have lower incomes and lower education
levels.

The dominant reason why some Latinos don’t vote though,
Navarrete said, is because they are non-citizens and lack
eligibility.

But the growing number of Latinos seeking naturalization may
change this.

“Latinos are extremely motivated to vote once they gain
their citizenship,” Navarrete said.

In California, Latinos are still angered by Proposition 187,
supported by Gov. Pete Wilson, which denied illegal immigrants
public social services, health-care, and education, according to
Navarrete. The proposition was later declared unconstitutional.

Wilson energized this population to vote, she said.

A record 7 million Latinos are anticipated to vote nationwide in
the upcoming election, two million more than in 1996, according to
Navarrete.

Socioeconomic reasons play a significant role in why voter
turnout among minorities was so much lower than among whites.

“There is a clear correlation between family income,
educational attainment and voter participation,” said Amie
Jamieson, statistician at the Education and Social Stratification
Branch of the Census Bureau.

Ever since 1996, when the Census Bureau reported voter turnout
was at an all-time low with less than half of the voting age
population voting for a presidential candidate, Jamieson said voter
participation has been decreasing.

A new 2000 Census Bureau projection, however, puts the Latino
voting age population up 16 percent compared with the 1996
election, said Jamieson. Still, two out of five of those Latinos
are not considered U.S. citizens.

Last week, President Clinton campaigned for the vice president,
stopping in prominent California African American communities like
Oakland, San Jose, and the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles. One
student was impressed by Clinton’s recent rally in Crenshaw
to boost African American voter participation.

“It is the best thing that he could have done,” said
John Rodriguez, a fifth-year political science student, “When
the President visits you, it is more effective than someone handing
you a flyer.”

“It makes the community feel that he is concerned about
the issues we care about,” he continued.

Voting Statistics in the 1996 Presidential
Election

• Citizens who had a bachelors degree were nearly twice as likely
  (74 percent) to vote as those who had not completed high school (39
  percent).
• More than 70 percent of citizens with over $50,000 family
  income voted while only 40 percent voted with family income of less
  than $10,000 voted.
• 22 percent of those who registered said they could not get time
  off work or school or were too busy to vote in 1996.
• Twice as many (7.9 percent) African Americans than whites (3.5
  percent) who registered said they did not vote because of lack of
  transprtation.
• 14.7 percent of registered white and 5.9 percent of African
  American voters did not vote because they did not like the
  candidates.

SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau Original graphic by JACOB LIAO/Daily
Bruin Web adaptation by STEPHEN WONG