Asses the Importance of the Ethnic Minority Vote in the Us

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Asses the importance of the ethnic minority vote in the US political system The political system within the US consists of two parties; Democrats and Republicans. Whilst the Democrats conventionally gain the vote of the worse off citizens, the Republicans achieve the vote of the better off citizens; nevertheless, neither party are oblivious of the importance of the ethnic minorities. In 2008 Blacks voted at higher levels than they ever had in any other Presidential Election. Black voter turnout averages between 5% and 10% below that of the White voter turnout. Many Blacks doubt the political system has any value for them. They remain economically and socially disadvantaged. Voting has not changed that. Also many feel that the politicians have little interest in them. They feel the Democrats take their votes for granted and the Republicans are against them particularly as the majority are poor. Voter turnout for Whites was 66%, 65% of Blacks turned out to vote while Hispanic and Asian turnout rates were much lower and similar at about 49%. In relation to the 2004 President Election the voting rates for Blacks, Hispanics and Asians increased by about 4% points while the White voting rate decreased by 1%. Of the 5 million additional voters in 2008, approximately 2 million were Black, 2 million Hispanic and 600,000 Asian. These statistics show that ethnic minorities have made up the majority of additional voters, presenting the importance of ethnic minorities in the US political system. In 2000 Whites had the highest registration rates with 72% of Whites registered to vote. Although Black registration rates did increase by 4 percentage points, Black registration was still lower than Whites at 68%. Hispanic registration rates were lower still at 57% and remained unchanged from the 1996 Presidential Election. API registration rates went down from 1996 to 2000 by 5%

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