“Big Cities in Swing States Saw Declines in Midterm Voting”

This is from a WSJ piece, which is paywalled. A few excerpts:

In Detroit, about 22,600 fewer voters came to the polls than in the 2018 midterm election, a nearly 12% decline. Philadelphia tallied about 55,300 fewer voters than four years ago, a 10% drop. In Columbus, Ohio, the shortfall topped 50,000, down 17%….

Wisconsin’s largest city drew about 36,000 fewer people to the polls than in the last midterm, a decline of nearly 17%. If Milwaukee voters had turned out in the same numbers as in 2018, and Mr. Barnes retained his 80% share among the additional voters, he would have netted roughly 22,000 additional votes and cut his losing margin against GOP Sen. Ron Johnson from 1 percentage point to just 0.17 percent of votes cast.

A full assessment of which voter groups account most for the falloff won’t be known until states update their records of who cast ballots. Analysts in both parties say the parties say the decline came largely in heavily Latino and Black precincts of big cities. 

“I don’t think people have been engaged since President Obama,” said the Rev. Greg Lewis, a Black pastor who leads Milwaukee’s Souls to the Polls group, a church-based organization that seeks to boost voter turnout. “Black folks don’t trust the system, and they don’t understand their power.”

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