DEMOCRACY
SOUTH
Making Democracy Happen
October
25, 2004
Zach Polett
Director of Political Operations
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now
2101 Main Street
Little Rock, Arkansas 72206
RE: Analysis
and Interpretation of the Racial Composition of Returned Voter
Applications in Cuyahoga County, Ohio
Dear
Zach:
Today
we used a fairly common procedure—geocoding—to
place voter applicants receiving returned applications within
Census geography (tabulation blocks) of known racial composition.
This procedure permits the development of reliable estimates
of the racial composition for groups of people living in well-defined
areas. Using this method we analyzed a file provided by the
Cuyahoga Board of Elections of voters receiving returned applications.
Although African Americans constitute only 27% of the population
of Cuyahoga County, our descriptive statistics reveal that
a conservatively estimated 46 percent of voters receiving
returned applications are African-American. If application
rejection were randomly distributed across the population
of Cuyahoga County, roughly one-in-four application denials
would involve African Americans. Instead, the African American
proportion of rejected applications is closer to one-in-two.
The simple and unequivocal truth of our analysis is that African
Americans are disproportionately and substantially over-represented
among voters receiving returned applications.
Democracy
South performed this analysis and interpretation for the Association
of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Democracy South
is a network of eleven state-based, non-profit organizations
seeking more responsive and accountable government through
a truly participatory democracy. The geocoding procedure and
attached tabular report were created by Anthony Fairfax, a
longtime expert and published scholar in the utilization of
Census statistics. Winnett Hagens, who is a Political Scientist
and published voting rights scholar, provided the interpretation
of the statistics.
Sincerely,
Winnett Hagens
Executive Director
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