On Wednesday, the NAACP started its national registration drive for voters in Atlanta. The goal for the organization is to target the nearly 1 million minority voters who have not registered to vote in the area. After historic black voter participation in the 2008 election, there are many people who doubt if that same level of turnout will exist after the first term of Barack Obama four years later.

The NAACP says what it is fighting is complacency. NAACP President Edward DuBose is worried about the level of enthusiasm at this juncture. He said the energy level at this point compared to four years ago is much lower.

The NAACP is a non-partisan organization and its leaders tiptoed on Wednesday in order to not present the drive to register voters as an effort to increase Democratic votes, but rather it is a question of individual empowerment.

Nevertheless, black voters are overwhelmingly and historically supportive of Democrats. In 2008, black voters visited the polls at higher numbers than in any election for the presidency since 1996; the first year race was tracked by the U.S. Census for voter turnout.

In Georgia, during the 2008 election, a drive for registration helped increase the minority voter ranks by 25%. Since that time, the number of black voters registering has leveled off and despite the big registration numbers for minorities in Georgia in 2008; John McCain still defeated Obama in the state’s presidential election by 5%.

Nevertheless, Obama was closer to a victory in Georgia than any previous Democrat was since Bill Clinton in 1992.