The total number of eligible African Americans who did not vote in the 2004 presidential election: 9,330,000. President Bush's nationwide margin of victory over John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election: 3,012,497.
(Federal Election Commission and U.S. Census Bureau)
In 2004, the voter turnout rate for blacks was 60 percent, while the rate for non-Hispanic whites was 67 percent. Asians and Hispanics weighed in at 44 percent and 47 percent, respectively. These rates were higher than the previous presidential election by 5 percentage points for non-Hispanic whites and 3 points for blacks. By contrast, the voting rates for Asian and Hispanic citizens did not change. These data pertain to those who identified themselves as being of a single race.
Despite the fact that over 9 million eligible black voters did not vote in 2004, the nation witnessed a positive surge in the youth vote across ethnicities. Much of the surge in youth voting was driven by an increase in voting among African-American youth. African-American youth turnout dropped off in the 1988 election and remained fairly constant until the 2004 election, in which African-Americans experienced a jump in turnout of more than 11 percentage points over 2000--the greatest increase in turnout of any racial or ethnic minority group during the recent election cycle.
(Sources: U.S. Census Bureau; The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement)
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