Nearly half (48%) of all U.S. adults say “a great deal/a lot” of progress has been made on voting rights for African Americans, according to an AP-NORC report published March 11.
According to 31% of respondents, “some” progress has been made, while 11% say that “only a little/none” has been made.
White respondents (52%) were far more likely than Black respondents (32%) to say the U.S. has seen “a great deal/a lot” of progress “in achieving equal treatment for African Americans in voting rights.”
By comparison, 33% of white respondents said “some” and 17% “only a little/none,” while among Black respondents 33% said “some” and 33% said “only a little/none.”
A similar pattern emerged when asked, “Is there more to be done to achieve equal treatment for African Americans in voting?”
A majority (57%) of Black respondents said, “Yes, a lot,” compared to 29% of white respondents, while a plurality (42%) of white respondents said, “No,” compared to only 12% of Black respondents. “Yes, a little” was the response of 30% of Black and 27% of white adults to this question.
“Most Black (61%) and Hispanic (56%) Americans consider voter suppression a major problem. Just 41% of white Americans agree that barring eligible voters from the ballot box is a major problem,” the report said. “Sixty percent of Democrats say that voter suppression is a major problem, while 66% of Republicans believe that people voting fraudulently is a major problem.”
One area of agreement is how respondents feel about U.S. democracy.
Very few said that the words “hopeful” (15%) or “proud” (13%) are good descriptors for how they feel “about the state of U.S. democracy these days,” while nearly half of all respondents said frustrated (48%) and worried (45%) described their sentiment “extremely/very well.”
The full report is available here. The topline results are available here. The methodology, noting an overall margin of error is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points, is available here.
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