Black leaders are predicting a higher turnout
among African-Americans in November's presidential election, a factor
that could prove crucial in tipping the race in favour of John Kerry.
One group, Hip Hop Summit Action, is boasting it has persuaded an
additional 2 million blacks to register to vote. The Kerry campaign is,
meanwhile, turning to a new superstar in the Democratic Party to boost
turnout numbers. He is Barack Obama, the Illinois state senator who
wowed the party's Boston convention in July with his keynote speech. Mr
Obama is so far ahead in his bid to capture a US Senate seat that he is
increasingly switching his time and dollars to campaigning for Mr
Kerry. While Mr Kerry struggles to connect with the black community in
the way former president Bill Clinton was able to, several factors
suggest that his support from African-Americans may be very high. Above
all, there is the memory of 2000 when thousands of blacks found
themselves unable to vote because of balloting foul-ups. "Given the
fact that there is a strong anti-Bush sentiment in the black community
and what happened in 2000 with questions about black votes not being
counted in Florida, you have the ingredients for a larger black
turnout," argued Bruce Ransom, a political science professor at Clemson
University in South Carolina. [more ]
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