April 9, 2013

Guess Who Waits Longest to Vote?

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Via Steve Benen, I see that we have a new study from MIT political science professor Charles Stewart about waiting times to vote in the 2012 election. Two factors seem to play the biggest roles in wait times: where you live and where you live. Of the ten places with the longest waits, nine are southern or border states.1 And within states, areas with dense populations have the highest wait times. Here’s the net result:

At the individual level, the factor that stands out is race. Viewed nationally, African Americans waited an average of 23 minutes to vote, compared to 12 minutes for whites; Hispanics waited 19 minutes.

While there are other individual-level demographic difference present in the responses, none stands out as much as race. For instance, the average wait time among those with household incomes less than $30,000 was 12 minutes, compared to 14 minutes for those in households with incomes greater than $100,000. Strong Democrats waited an average of 16 minutes, compared to an average of 11 minutes for strong Republicans.

Is this racial disparity deliberate? It’s impossible to say. But it’s there; it’s been there for a long time; and no one seems to be in much of a hurry to fix it. I report, you decide.

1Tennessee, Louisiana, Georgia, Oklahoma, Michigan, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland, and Florida. And yes, I know that Washington DC isn’t actually a state.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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