AS A veteran of the Civil Rights Movement, a former Georgia legislator and now chairman of the NAACP, Prof. Julian Bond brings a unique and valuable perspective to the University. While one cannot question his moral rectitude, one might question Bond's factual certitude.
With the country headed for another contentious election, Bond recently jumped into the thicket to warn against electoral fraud. Many of the tactics he cites are as disturbing as the racist motivations he ascribes are questionable.
Bond's allegations, coming from a recent report co-authored by the NAACP and the left-wing group People for the American Way, accuse Republicans of disenfranchising African Americans. The report cites incidents such as: investigators of fraud in an Orlando mayor's race focusing on voters in African-American areas, Florida officials purging African-American felons from voting lists but not Hispanic Americans and flyers in African-American areas advertising the wrong date for voting.
Almost all of these examples are morally wrong and most are illegal, but all have alternative, race-neutral explanations that should be considered.
Nobody condones voter fraud. But intuitively, there is more opportunity for electoral fraud in poor districts, which have outdated, insecure voting equipment. With fewer economic alternatives, those who can fix elections are also more willing to take payoffs. Sadly, due to centuries of profound injustices, many African Americans tend to live in poverty. The Orlando voting investigation is just as likely to have targeted poor areas as it targeted minorities.
As for the charge about African-American felons being blocked from voting, this is actually a paradox of one minority group being wrongfully enfranchised. By law, convicted felons cannot vote in most states, including Florida. Cuban Americans in Florida vote overwhelmingly Republican; African Americans vote Democrat. Officials in the Republican-controlled state devised a method of matching the felon list with the voter list whereby Hispanic-American felons (namely, their Cuban-American supporters) were systematically exempt from the voting blocks placed on all other felons. The effort, though clearly illegal, was clearly not aimed at blocking African Americans per se from voting.
Lastly, misleading voters about voting dates is wrong and illegal, but also a noted tactic. As a former politician, Bond knows that for every effort to "get out the vote" of supporters, there is also an attempt to suppress the vote of opponents. These tactics sometimes violate the law. But that does not mean they are always motivated by race.
Here, it is crucial to distinguish correlation from causation. Largely African-American areas correlate with largely Democratic areas because African Americans, more than any other major demographic group, vote as a monolithic bloc. According to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, almost two-thirds of African Americans are Democrats, while only 6 percent are Republicans. The dirty tricks played in African-American areas are just as likely to be targeted at party as they are against race.
Politics Prof. Larry Sabato tends to side with the party explanation as well. In an e-mail, he explained, "Politicians
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