2016 The Choice: Early voting results and voter intimidation
Though Election Day is officially six days away, millions of Americans have made up their minds and already cast their votes: 29 million, in fact, according to one tracking organization.
“We’re seeing record numbers of people voting early in a number of states,” Michael McDonald, founder of the United States Elect Project, told Yahoo News Global Anchor Katie Couric. “People have followed the election, they’ve made their choice, and now they’re ready to vote.”
Some 37 states and Washington, D.C., allow some form of early voting, and record turnout has already been reported this year. “[In] some of the key battleground states, we’re going to see more than 50, 60, 70 percent of votes cast prior to Election Day,” McDonald said.
McDonald noted that in Colorado and Nevada, 50% of the votes cast in 2012 were already in. He said Colorado appears to be in Clinton’s column as of now, and the Democrats are “well poised” to take Nevada as well.
McDonald said that recent news of FBI Director James Comey’s continued investigation of emails related to Hillary Clinton does not seem to be having a marked effect on the election, owing to the amount of information that voters already have about each candidate. “It’s not really adding any more additional information to people’s vote choice,” he said.
Analysts are also looking at voter turnout among African-Americans, a key demographic. On the “Tom Joyner Radio Show” this morning, President Obama said, “The African-American vote right now is not as solid as it needs to be.” According to the New York Times, Florida’s share of African-American voters has decreased – it’s 15 percent today, but was 25 percent four years ago. In North Carolina, the black turnout is down by 16 percent.
Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, told Couric that her organization is keeping a close eye on voter intimidation tactics across the country before and on Election Day: “This is an election cycle where there’s been a dark cloud of voter security measures.”
Clarke said the firebombing of a historic black church in Mississippi last night was “truly tragic.” Outside the church, “Vote Trump” had been written on a wall.
“Our nation has a very long history of church arsons, and often black churches have been the houses of worship that have been targeted,” she said.
“It’s my hope that the Justice Department will bring its resources to bear to quickly investigate this arson to figure out what happened and who was behind it,” Clarke told Couric. “I am concerned about what appears to be a recent uptick in the targeting of houses of worship. And then we have to be deeply concerned about the timing here, how proximate this timing is to the upcoming Tuesday election. I hope that this is the end.”
Yahoo News Now Special Edition: “2016 The Choice” — Every weekday until the election, we’ll be coming to you live from the Yahoo Studios in New York City, bringing the latest information and analysis of the day’s most compelling storylines in the race for the White House.
