One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy

by Carol Anderson

The Census Bureau, for example, uncovered that when it sends out mail, “white voters are 21 percent more likely than blacks or Hispanics to respond to their official requests; homeowners are 32 percent more likely to respond than renters; and the young are 74 percent less likely than the old to respond.”23 Thus, the differential response rates for Husted’s mailings translate into disproportionate purges in key neighborhoods of Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati—areas that are overwhelmingly minority and composed of renters and young adults. In Cleveland, for example, whites make up only 34.5 percent of the residents while 50.1 percent of the city’s residents are black and 10.5 percent are Hispanic.24 Moreover, nearly 60 percent of homes in the city are rented, not owned.25 It is also a town where 69 percent of the voters went for Obama in 2012.