INSTITUTE INDEX: Jim Crow goes to the polls
Number of states where Republican lawmakers passed new voting restrictions in the run-up to this year's election that critics said would suppress the youth, African-American and Hispanic vote: more than 12
Number of days by which Florida's Republican lawmakers reduced the state's 14-day early voting period amid concerns over strong Democratic turnout in 2008: 6
As a consequence, hours that Juanita Morales of Miami-Dade County, Fla. waited in line to cast a ballot during early voting while tethered to an oxygen tank: more than 4
Wait that some other Floridians faced to vote early: 7
According to an election night survey conducted for the AFL-CIO, percentage of Romney supporters who had to wait 30 minutes or more to vote: 9
Percentage of Obama voters who had to wait that long: 16
Percentage of white voters who had to wait 30 minutes or more to vote: 9
Percentage of African Americans: 22
Percentage of Hispanics: 24
Number of Ohio polling places that True the Vote, a Houston-based tea party group accused of racially discriminatory voter intimidation tactics, was barred from monitoring after it was found to have falsified paperwork: 30
Number of complaints and inquiries received during the election by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, some of which the group will likely ask the Justice Department to investigate: about 90,000
Percentage-point increase in the nonwhite U.S. electorate from 2008 to 2012: 2
Percentage by which Florida's Latino vote increased from 2008 to 2012: 3
Percentage of the nonwhite electorate that voted for President Obama in 2012: 80
According to the North Carolina NAACP president, rank of the GOP-controlled state legislature's thwarted effort to enact a voter ID law in motivating African Americans to head to the polls this year: 1
Date on which The News & Observer reported that North Carolina Republicans -- who captured the governor's office and a statehouse supermajority this week thanks in part to districts they gerrymandered after winning legislative control in 2010 -- plan to implement an aggressive agenda including requiring voters to present photo ID at the polls: 11/7/2012
(Click on figure to go to source. Photo of a 2005 Atlanta rally calling for reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act by D. Ryan via The Leadership Conference website.)
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Sue Sturgis
Sue is the former editorial director of Facing South and the Institute for Southern Studies.