Informative analysis about why so many African Americans are not registered to vote. The author suggests that a possible cause may be suppression of minority voters, including: "stringent driver’s license or other ID checks, rigid timelines for filing voter applications, the lack of information or misinformation about voter registration forms and materials, and non-existent or feeble voter registration campaigns." However, he doesn't offer much factual evidence in this article to support these claims, however valid they may be. An interesting read nonetheless.

It has been a long standing problem that each voting year fewer vote and more are not registered. The disappointment of this article is it seems stuck in the past. Barack Obama campaign has registered more than ever. They have also received more campaign dollars from small donors. Part of the importance of this year’s presidential campaign is likely more new voters. A discussion of that issue should be part of this article.

A legitimate discussion of the connection between race and voter participation. However little evidence is offered for the suggestion that suppression of the black vote is a factor.

Hutchinson Q: "Why," is answered only with speculation. The set up, i.e., apparent number of African-Americans voters and non-voters isn't substantiated — while the Census is a good place to start, the rest of the stats could use citations. What does "millionaires' derby" have to do with this? Didn't Rick Wade have more to say about this? Or did Hutchinson not interview the man?

This appears to be a racially motivated article that takes what may or may not be some factual information but never really explains it. Other than blaming the victim, I didn't learn ONE new thing by reading this article.