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Originally Posted by Thunderball
It really shouldn't exist, but its pretty obvious that people in minority enclaves tend to vote for minority candidates, since the perception is they will react to issues specific to them sooner than someone who isn't as connected to their community. Is it stupid? yes. Is it backwards? yes. Does it happen anyway? Yes, ask PC candidate Muhammad Rasheed.
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I don't believe that ethnic voters are more likely to vote for candidates of the same ethnicity in any meaningful way (at least not in liberal western democracies.) For a relatively anecdotal example, in Calgary's last mayoral election, Nenshi's worst results came from ridings on Calgary's east side with the most muslim and South Asian residents (see
results and
riding profiles.)
Also, how many black voters in the United States would have voted for Herman Cain over Bill Clinton?
This study on partisanship and ethnicity concluded that partisan political group identification was far more dominant than ethnic group identification among American latinos.
More importantly,
this study from the University of Oxford considered thi exact question in the context of the 2010 British General Election and concluded as follows:
Quote:
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To summarize the main results of this paper are that white British voters are less likely to vote for Muslim candidates, but there is insufficient evidence that minority candidates in general face an ethnic penalty at the ballot box. While there are slight, and statistically insignificant, indications that Muslim voters are more likely to vote for Muslim candidates than others, there is no sign that ethnic minority voters prefer to vote for ethnic minority candidates in general or even co-ethnic candidates.
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So, it may be a perception that this occurs, but it seems to be imagined. And in my view, it is unacceptable for candidates to exploit these sorts of imagined, racially-based perceptions.