black voters

The location and the physical aspects of the electoral process itself — the buildings, equipment, and election workers — can make it more difficult to vote in some communities, finds a new study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Hailed by some as the “end of race as we know it” and the beginning of a “post-racial” America, the 2008 election of Barack Obama sparked a measurable bump in feelings of political empowerment among black Americans. But those sentiments have faded considerably over the last year or so, according to a new analysis of political survey data, with the sharpest declines in perceived political power coming among blacks who identify themselves as conservatives or “born again” Christians.​