Mobile, Alabama, Just Diluted the Black Vote Through Annexation
Last week’s annexation vote in Mobile, Alabama, added thousands of white residents, reducing the black-white voter gap in the majority-minority city. It’s an effective strategy used by city elites to artificially inflate conservative political power.
A recent annexation vote in Mobile, Alabama, will shrink the white-black voter gap by thousands. (Win McNamee / Getty Images)
Last week’s annexation vote in Mobile, Alabama, was pitched as a race to be among the biggest cities in the Southern state. The Gulf Coast city added more than fifteen thousand residents, hoisting Mobile above Montgomery and Birmingham, and just below Huntsville.
“God answers prayers! We’re the second-largest city in Alabama!” proclaimed Mobile mayor Sandy Stimpson.
What annexation supporters were more reluctant to talk about was the racial disparity. Only 27 percent of the city’s new residents are black, shrinking the white-black voter gap by thousands in a majority-minority city with a history of institutional racism.
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