Suchergebnisse

An accumulating body of research suggests that African Americans cast invalid ballots at a higher rate than whites. Our analysis of a unique precinct‐level dataset from South Carolina and Louisiana shows that the black‐white gap in voided ballots depends crucially on the voting equipment people use. In areas with punch cards or optically scanned ballots, the black‐white gap ranged from four to six percentage points. Lever and electronic machines, which prohibit overvoting and make undervoting more transparent and correctible, cut the discrepancy by a factor of ten. Judging from exit polls and opinion surveys, much of the remaining difference could be due to intentional undervoting, which African Americans profess to practice at a slightly higher rate than whites. In any case, the use of appropriate voting technologies can virtually eliminate the black‐white disparity in invalid ballots.

ObjectiveWe use nationally representative survey experiments to assess public opinion about how President Obama should have identified himself racially on the 2010 Census.MethodsRespondents were randomly assigned to three conditions—a control, a treatment that described the president's biracial ancestry, and a treatment that combined the biracial ancestry information with a statement that Obama had in fact classified himself as black only. All respondents were then asked how they felt Obama should have filled out his Census form.ResultsA clear majority of Americans in all experimental conditions said that Obama should have identified himself as both black and white.ConclusionThere appears to be suggesting robust acceptance of official multiracial identification despite the cultural and legal legacy of the "one drop of blood" rule in official U.S. race categorization. A subsequent survey experiment found that a convenience sample of Americans support multiracial identification for mixed‐race individuals generally and not only for the president.