New York City, November 4, 2008, 6pm EST: I have been monitoring exits polls all day, receiving telephones from polling places across America and getting e-mails from hip-hop voters (18-35 year-olds) today.
Based on all the existing polling of people who actually have voted, and in particular from an analysis of the lates Zogby Electoral Poll and from feedback that we have received steadily throughout today in the office of the non-partisan Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, we concluded at 6pm EST that Barack Obama has won the US Presidential Election with more than 300 Electoral Votes.
Millions of young adults who are part of the hip-hop generation registered to vote this year in record numbers. Today in the face of a lot of systematic media speculation about whether or not the hip-hop vote would actually turn out, we are proud that young voters did in fact stand up and voted in record numbers across the country to change America.
And this is just in from our contacts in NC at Planetary Polling Agency that was monitoring exit polls today in my home state of North Carolina: "Exit polling indicates that Barack Obama has carried North Carolina -- the state has become the firewall on the border between the red and the blue."
Tomorrow the pundits will be at work in an attempt to play down the significance of what happened in the 2008 Election as far as the hip-hop vote is concerned. A salute to all the hip-hop artists and recording industry leaders who helped to make today possible.
Congratulations to the Hip-Hop Caucus and the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network and the "Respect My Vote" GOTV Tour that went to the key swing states and over 20 cities during the last 3 weeks in a grass roots effort to help turn out the massive youth vote.
-Dr. Benjamin Chavis