The National Black Church Initiative Launches Voter Registration and Education Drive in 11 Battleground States for Black Faith Voters

Our goal is to increase turn out by an additional 5%

Washington, DC – The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI), a faith-based coalition of 34,000 churches comprised of 15 denominations and 15.7 million African Americans, in a progressive move NBCI ministers and churches will focus its efforts during this presidential election on eleven battleground states with the focus of turning out African American faith voters. Those states are: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.

In Michigan alone there are 239,431 unregistered African American voters, in Florida there are 398,710, in Ohio there are 256,000, in Pennsylvania there are 204,036, in Virginia there are 268,091 and in North Carolina there are 409,323. In all eleven states the National Black Church Initiative intends to increase the African American registered voter turnout rate by 5%. For example in Colorado the black turnout rate was 66%. We plan to increase that number to 71%.

It is very clear in this election that voters of all stripes are engaged. NBCI’s goal will be working with our tradition coalition of turning out black voters in all 50 states, but we will pay particular attention to black voters in the eleven states that may decide this election.

There are approximately 6 million African Americans who are eligible to vote but don’t vote. This effort by the National Black Church Initiative is to persuade those Black unregistered voters in the states mentioned above that this election counts and they must vote according to their Christian faith.

Rev. Anthony Evans, President of the NBCI says, “ I’m excited about this election for a lot of reasons.  We have been working for the past two years in the eleven states to bolster our black faith voters. Many will suspect that we are part of a coalition of conservative white voters and that would be a mistake. Black faith voters are Christians who are registered to vote to make sure that their religious liberty will be respected as we go forth in a very complex post-gay marriage era. We plan to vote to protect our families and our way of worship.”

The Associated Press is out with a study of the 2012 election concluding that the black voter turnout rate exceeded the white turnout rate for the first time. It’s almost certainly true that black turnout was higher than white turnout last fall — but that also was true in 2008.

The National Black Church Initiative is a nonprofit organization and we do not endorse any political candidate