Black Turnout Soft in Early Voting
African-Americans are failing to vote at the robust levels they did four years ago in several states that could help decide the presidential election, creating a vexing problem for Hillary Clinton as she clings to a deteriorating lead over Donald J. Trump with Election Day just a week away.
As tens of millions of Americans cast ballots in what will be the largest-ever mobilization of early voters in a presidential election, the numbers have started to point toward a slump that many Democrats feared might materialize without the nation’s first black president on the ticket.
And then there is this.
Some black voters, like Ronald Brooks, said they simply needed more time to make a decision this year.
It was just easier, Mr. Brooks said, in 2008 and 2012, when he had voted for Mr. Obama.
Mr. Brooks, 31, a mental health worker, was still weighing his options on Tuesday morning.
He said he was worried about Mrs. Clinton’s trustworthiness, given that she had set up a private email server as secretary of state.
“What were you trying to hide?” he said.
His hesitation reflected a generational divide among African-Americans:
Older voters have an affection for Mrs. Clinton and her husband, and a fear of Mr. Trump, that many younger voters do not share.
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