2016 Election Night

The urban-rural divide appears to be growing ever stronger this election season. But at least one rural part of the country continues to vote solidly Democratic: the so-called Black Belt. Made up of a swath of counties that sweep across the South and have large African-American populations, these counties were solidly blue in a sea of red in recent elections. You can see an example below in the 2012 results from Alabama.

John Zippert, secretary for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, has worked with African-American farmers in the rural South for nearly 50 years. Even without Medicaid expansion in most of these states, which Zippert thinks is desperately needed, he said President Obama has been good for the region. He is cautiously optimistic about what will come if Clinton is elected. “When you elect Hillary Clinton, you don’t just elect Clinton, you elect the 3,000 people she appoints, including 50 from the Department of Agriculture that we are going to have to work with every day,” he said. He hopes that group will be diverse.

There are longer-than-expected waits to vote in several parts of the country. In Durham, North Carolina, a pending lawsuit asks that poll closing times be extended by 90 minutes, to 9 p.m. Delays or problems with the voting process have been reported in states including Colorado, Florida and Pennsylvania. I spoke with Pita Juarez of the One Arizona coalition, which is working to turn out Latino voters. She said that while turnout was strong, voting was slow in the morning because of problems with Wi-Fi and malfunctioning ballot machines. With people getting off of work in that state, she worries the lines will get even longer.

The polls have closed in most of Indiana and Kentucky, although the polling stations in the Central time zone in those states are still open. Don’t expect a call from the networks in either state until 7 p.m., but we should start getting results from them sooner than that.