Obama rushes to help Clinton
DRUMMING UP SUPPORT President tries to enthuse African American voters who are staying away from poll booths
Americans, reflected in lower turnouts than 2012 for early voting — absentee and in-person polling compared. It’s down by 16% in North Carolina and from 24% to 15% in Florida.
“I’m not on the ballot this time,” Obama told a rally in Ohio, another swing state where low turnouts among African Americans are worrying Democrats. “But…America is on the ballot. Hillary Clinton is on the ballot!”
With the race in dead heat now — Clinton leads Donald Trump by 1.7 points in the RealClearPolitics average of polls — and with five days left for polling, both nominees and their surrogates are crisscrossing the country with their closing pitch.
Their focus is on battleground states that will determine the race — Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Nevada and Arizona — and states they control but would like to ensure do not slip out of their grip.
With early voting underway in most states — an estimated 24 million of the 218 million registered voters have already cast their vote — these end-stage rallies and get-out-the-vote events have taken on a predictable urgency. The lower-than-expected turnout among black voters is a cause for concern not only for Clinton but for the Democratic party as well in a post-Obama scenario. Can those historic turnouts be gone now?
There is no immediate danger of the black vote transferring to Donald Trump because of his flagrant flirtation with racists and politically naive call to the community to give him a chance as they have nothing to lose.
They won’t vote for Trump, but will they show up and vote for Clinton? Her campaign appears hopeful of getting up the numbers by election day through door-todoor mobilisation and get-outthe-vote events targeting the community.
While Clinton found early support among African Americans voters, she has struggled to find traction with the young in the community, who have had the same trust issues with her as many other demographics.