Voters at Alabama A&M University pass a voting sign after voting at Elmore Gym during Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024 in Huntsville, Alabama. A report from the Brennan Center found that the racial voting gap between whites, Black and nonwhites in Alabama widened to its largest level in 20 years. (Eric Schultz for Alabama Reflector)
A new study found that voter turnout gaps between white and nonwhite Alabamians hit a two-decade high in 2024.
The Brennan Center for Justice, a liberal nonprofit law and public policy institute based in New York, found that turnout among eligible white voters was 65% last year. Among nonwhites, the turnout was 51%.
Those two figures respectively are the highest they have been for the past two decades. In 2008 when former President Barack Obama was first on the ballot, about 60% of Black Alabamians eligible to vote cast ballots, compared to 59% of whites. Nonwhites overall had a turnout of about 56%.
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But white turnout in the state has increased since then, peaking at 66% in 2020 before falling back to 65% last year. Black turnout fell to 50% in 2016; bounced back to 58% in 2020 but fell to 51% last year.
“We know that gap has grown, and in 2024, it has taken an almost turbo level increase in its scope,” said Kareem Crayton, vice president of the Washington, DC, office for the Brennan Center. “It is a very disturbing trend, particularly when we see the level of diversity in this country is far greater than it has been.”
The study did not delve deeply into some of the causes, but cited more restrictive voting policies that mostly Republican-led states have imposed since the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Shelby County vs. Holder that invalidated Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
The law sought to end discriminatory practices in many parts of the South that prevented minorities, but especially Blacks, from voting.
Section 5 of the law required states with histories of voter disenfranchisement to submit any changes to voting laws to the U.S. Department of Justice for approval. The court struck down preclearance in Shelby County v. Holder, a 2013 decision out of Shelby County just south of Birmingham. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, said the “country had changed.”
“We can’t say for certain what caused the white–Black turnout gap to widen in Alabama, but the surge in restrictive voting laws since the Shelby County v. Holder decision has likely played a role in depressing turnout among Black voters,” the study states. “Our research shows that a decade after the ruling gutted the Voting Rights Act, these gaps are growing everywhere, but they are widening especially quickly in places like Alabama that were subject to the “preclearance condition” that was suspended in Shelby County.”
Richard Fording, a professor in the political science department at the University of Alabama, agreed in an interview that voting restrictions could contribute to the gap but that other factors could be at play, including the enthusiasm Obama sparked among Black voters.
“The years 2008 and 2012 were years where we saw unusually high turnout among Black voters, compared to previous years,” he said in an email following an interview. “The other development that is specific to Alabama is that the state has undergone a significant shift in the balance of partisan control since 2010.”
Both Fording and Crayton also said that the lack of competitive elections contributes to the gap and low voter turnout in the state.
“Nobody wants to go to a game where the outcome is already (known), that is the real concern,” Crayton said.
In the 2nd Congressional District, the Black eligible population was almost 50%, which gave Democrats the chance to pick up another seat.
“It is not just gerrymandering, it is policies that make it less likely to be able to obtain an ID, to be able to cast a ballot,” Crayton said. “It is the limited opportunities people have to register; it is the purges. All these things work in a cumulative way that would drag down turnout for voters who may want to participate, but who find the hurdles are too advanced.”
The net effect is that the electorate only represents a portion of the total possible number of voters.
“You need to have all people voting in order for democracy to work,” said Kathy Jones, president of the League of Women Voters of Alabama. “It is so important to hear everyone’s voice.”
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