Last week, I spoke at length with Myrna Perez of the Brennan Law Center about voter purging. While Nate Silver discusses the implications of a massive surge of African American voter registration in Georgia, there's a development in the article he links to that may be even more important for Obama's chances elsewhere.
There's nothing to suggest that this process isn't on the up-and-up. But remember the Feb. 5 presidential primary? African Americans made up 30 percent of the 2 million votes cast.
That means, statistically, a disproportionate number of African Americans protected themselves from being purged from voter rolls for inactivity.
Of all the efforts to prevent eligible voters from being denied their chance at the ballot box, the most fundamentally successful may have been the enthusiasm Barack Obama generated during the primary season. Simply by voting, black voters in states like Virginia and North Carolina, where they turned out in record numbers for Obama, may have prevented themselves from being purged from voter rolls in advance of the election. In the end, these states are more likely to go for Obama than Georgia is.
Of course there are still systemic purges other than those based on voter inactivity that end up disenfranchising eligible voters, and these may be a factor on Election Day.
--A. Serwer
