Here’s more data, this time from the Pew Reseach Center, bolstering the claim that the discrimination problems that originally justified the extraordinary measures of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act just don’t exist anymore.

For example: ”In its Nov. 8-12 poll in 2012, just 4% of whites answered yes to the question: ‘Did you have any problems or difficulties voting this year, or not.’ Only 2% of African-Americans responded affirmatively.”

And: ”Further, the findings of Pew’s Elections Performance Index show that while problems in American voting — such as waiting times at polling places, or rejected voter registrations – are widespread, they are not particular to poorer states or Southern states. This lends further credence to the absence of a race gap in the incidence of voting problems.”

Also discussed is recent Census data on elections (see also this earlier post): ”The Census survey found on average slightly higher reports of voting among African-American voters than among whites in former Confederate states, 67% to 62%. Notably, in Mississippi and North Carolina, more blacks reported voting than whites by 10 and 15 percentage points, respectively. The racial gap in voting was more modest in non-Confederate states (67% among blacks versus 65% among whites).”