The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #104934   Message #2157254
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
25-Sep-07 - 03:04 PM
Thread Name: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
Such ignorance!

Voting facts.
"In that time period (1980-2004), blacks in Louisiana have reported higher registration rates than blacks outside the South. In fact, beginning in 1988, the difference has been at least ten percentage points, with the one exception of 1994. In 2002, Louisiana blacks were 16.5 percentage points more likely to report being registered than non-southern African Americans."
"....by 2004, blacks were almost 30 percent of the registered electorate, a figure basically identical to [their share of] the voting age population."

A complication- while 30% of LA"s registered electorate is African American (equal to their percentage of the electorate as a whole), they tend to vote Democratic in a state in which George W. Bush won 75% of the white vote in 2004. This does not as important on the parish level; blacks hold 20% of the seats in the State Legislature, and are represented by more than 700 elected officials.
Bullock-Gaddie Report on Louisiana, Feb. 10, 2006, AEI website.

Louisiana voting

Again, this has nothing to do with the Jena criminal case.