This TED Talk’s name, “Picking apart the puzzle of racism in elections” is not so much about racism as a factor in elections, but using the 2008 election as a means to discover if racism was predictable, and therefore could be planned against. The short answer is that people who voted based on race (negatively), as well as a negative view of inter-racial marriage, correlated the most with both a low level of education and the degree of interaction with people of other racial identity.
As a side note, I would really wish to see a study of people who voted positively based on race, among both minority and majority ethnic groups. Among minorities, it would reveal the degree of bias AGAINST a non-minority candidate when a minority one was available; among those who identify themselves as “Caucasion” it would be interesting to test for the existence of alleged “[[white guilt]]”.
Personally, I voted for Obama (in the primary) in part based on race. My thinking was that it would open the door all the way for equal opportunities through example, as well as potentially break any monolithic stereotype of Americans abroad.