I’ve been hearing a lot about this lately…the idea that people say they won’t vote for Obama, but when they get into the polls they will.

The evidence is obviously all anecdotal, like this story from Salon where a couple voters use the N word in reference to Obama…but say they’re supporting him anyway.

And then this story from Politico reveals many similar stories…

Anecdotes from across the battlegrounds suggest that there’s a significant minority of prejudiced white voters who will swallow hard and vote for the black man.

“I wouldn’t want a mixed marriage for my daughter, but I’m voting for Obama,” the wife of a retired Virginia coal miner, Sharon Fleming, told the Los Angeles Times recently.

One Obama volunteer told Politico after canvassing the working-class white Philadelphia neighborhood of Fishtown recently, “I was blown away by the outright racism, but these folks are … undecided. They would call him a [racial epithet] and mention how they don’t know what to do because of the economy.”

I also have my own evidence, and it comes in the form of my grandfather. I love him, but the guy is definitely a racist. And yet, he’s going to vote for Obama today. Now, would he admit that to anybody but his family? Probably not.

These are obviously the extreme cases, but what about all of those other voters who feel external pressure to not vote for Obama because of generational, familial and peer pressures? How will they vote today?

For what it’s worth, something to consider as we see the results start rolling in.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 and is filed under Barack, Race, Voting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.