I am surprised no one's put this yet.
Today the (firewalled) Boston Globe [http://www.boston.com/...] reports that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts misrepresented Massachusetts African-American voter registration and turnout. Roberts asked Donald Verrilli if he knew which state had the worst African American turnout. When Veriilli said he didn't know, Roberts said it was Massachusetts. Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin calls Roberts out. Clearly Roberts was trying to say that "Mississippi is doing so much better they don't need the Voting Rights Act" says Galvin. But he's using phony numbers to make his point.
Tito Jackson, Boston city councilor, compares voter turnout in the last election in Charlestown (mostly white) with 68% turnout, and Roxbury (mostly African American) with 64%.
Also chiming in is Michael McDonald, government prof at George Mason who says the margin of error in measuring measuring black turnout in states with a small black population is in the double digits - and statistically unreliable. Furthermore, comparing states with large percentages of black voters to those with small is "disingenuous" says James Jennings, prof at Tufts, because the issues are completely different.
AND even if Roberts used existing state by state data (which has been shown to be unreliable due to the small sample) from the last census to make his claim, Arizona, Washington and Minnesota have similar or greater gaps than Massachusetts.
Just putting this out there - have to get back to work!