Black people around the nation are voting in droves. They are getting out to the polls and mailing in ballots at rates that have already set election participation records.
Over 60 million Americans have voted in the 2020 election so far, according to data compiled by the U.S. Elections Project. That’s two million more than the 58 million early voter ballots cast in 2016 as reported by The Associated Press.
With just seven days until the close of the race, political analysts anticipate this pace of early voting will begin to surpass total election turnout from 2016.
Despite ongoing challenges in getting their votes in, including extreme wait times and the increased likelihood of their mail-in ballots being rejected, participation is up among Black voters.
According to survey data from FiveThirtyEight, 60% of Black voters said they are voting early this year compared to 42% in 2016. This data also showed an increase in mail-in votes among Black people.
Along party lines,The Associated Press reports that more than half of all early ballots belong to registered Democrats compared to 31% belonging to registered Republicans.
Black people are often depicted as a non-participatory voting block, however, current voting data is already dispelling this label. For the 2020 election, Black American's plight of ongoing injustice on top of the pandemic is suspected to be fueling the increased participation from Black voters.
While a complete picture of Black voter turnout will not be available until after the election, the current data trends already show record participation from this block of voters.
The early voting period is coming to a close ahead of Election Day on Tuesday (November 3).
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