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Too hard
to vote?
Fired-up
Black
voters
are
doing it
anyway
By
Joseph
Tanfani,
and
Michael
Martina
reuters.com
In
the
historically
black
neighborhoods
of Waco,
Texas,
the
usual
get-out-the-vote
activities
in this
presidential
election
year
were
upended
by the
pandemic.
Gone
was the
all-day
party
with a
DJ and
grills
full of
barbecue
at an
early
voting
site at
a center
that
once
housed a
historically
Black
college.
Organizers
toned
down the
“Souls
to the
Polls”
event
that
once saw
church
vans
packed
with
voters
and
decorated
for the
occasion.
Door-knocking
was
replaced
by 5,000
hangers
placed
on
doorknobs
reminding
people
to vote.
Still,
longtime
political
organizers
in the
African-American
community
in this
central
Texas
city
said
their
efforts
have
gotten a
boost
from
President
Donald
Trump.
He and
other
Republicans
have
called
for poll
monitoring
and
sought
restrictions
on mail
balloting
in Texas
and
elsewhere
this
year to
prevent
alleged
voter
fraud.
Black
voters,
say
residents
and
activists,
have
interpreted
those
actions
as an
attempt
to
disenfranchise
them.
Their
response
has been
to turn
out in
record
numbers
in early
voting
in parts
of Waco.
“Based
on what
I’ve
seen, it
pisses
Black
voters
off,”
said
Linda
Lewis,
director
of
political
engagement
for the
local
chapter
of the
NAACP,
the
country’s
largest
civil
rights
organization.
At that
former
campus
in the
East
Waco
neighborhood,
7,571
people
had cast
ballots
in the
first
two
weeks of
early
voting -
more
than the
5,155
who
showed
up in
all of
2016,
voting
records
show.
In
August,
the
NAACP
launched
an
initiative
to
mobilize
so-called
“low-frequency”
Black
voters -
people
who were
registered
to vote,
but who
had not
voted in
the most
recent
election
cycle or
several
election
cycles -
in
several
states
with a
goal of
boosting
Black
turnout
by more
than 5%
compared
to the
2016
election.
In
Waco,
Lewis
and
others
said
they
adapted
their
methods
to the
pandemic.
Instead
of the
dinner,
organizers
handed
out
boxed
barbecue
lunches.
In a
city
without
enough
public
transportation,
some
groups
are
using
apps to
offer
rides to
voters.
Lewis,
74, is
making
sure
older
voters
aren’t
left
behind,
arranging
single
rides in
people’s
cars in
an
effort
she has
dubbed
“Big
Mama’s
Lift
Service.”
“For
Black
voters,
it’s
always
been
life or
death
for us,”
she
said.
“But
it’s
life or
death
for
everybody
now.”
African-American
voters
overwhelmingly
back
Democrats
in U.S.
elections,
and
their
turnout
will be
crucial
to the
party’s
efforts
to elect
Joe
Biden
and
recapture
control
of the
U.S.
Senate.
Biden
has a
77-point
lead
over
Trump
among
likely
Black
voters,
according
to the
latest
Reuters/Ipsos
poll
conducted
during
Oct.
6-20,
which
also
found
that 79%
disapprove
of
Trump’s
performance
in
office.
Black
voters
are
already
responsible
for
rescuing
Biden’s
campaign;
the
former
vice
president
struggled
in early
nominating
contests
this
year
before
scoring
a
resounding
victory
in South
Carolina,
propelled
by
African
Americans
familiar
with his
time at
the side
of
Barack
Obama,
the
country’s
first
Black
president.
Progressives
and
Democrats
say they
aren’t
taking
anything
for
granted
this
year.
On
Friday,
Kamala
Harris,
Biden’s
running
mate,
appeared
at a
historically
Black
college
in
Atlanta.
On
Saturday,
Black
motorcyclists
rallied
through
the
streets
of
Philadelphia,
while
Black
sororities
and
fraternities
have led
‘Strolls
to the
Polls’
events
in North
Carolina.
The
Biden
campaign
has
sponsored
“Shop
Talk”
events
to
engage
Black
men.
“We
know as
a Black
community
what is
at stake
and we
are
going to
show up
in
historic
numbers,”
said
Ashley
Allison,
the
Biden
campaign’s
national
coalitions
director.
At
the same
time,
there
are
signs of
softness
in Black
support
for
Biden.
Political
engagement,
which is
measured
by
counting
the
number
of
people
who say
they are
“certain”
to vote
in the
election,
has been
mostly
flat
among
African
Americans
since
March,
according
to the
Reuters/Ipsos
polling.
And
African
Americans
do not
appear
to
support
Biden
more
than
they did
Clinton
in 2016.
Trump,
meanwhile,
is
looking
to
siphon
enough
Black
support
from
Biden to
make the
difference
in
battleground
states
such as
Florida.
Trump
has
brashly
proclaimed
that he
has done
more for
Black
Americans
than any
president
since
Abraham
Lincoln.
Some
surveys
show he
has made
inroads
with
Black
men and
younger
African
Americans
who, in
contrast
with
older
voters,
like his
toughness
and
anti-establishment
message.
Trump
has
promoted
the
pre-pandemic
economy
that saw
Black
unemployment
hit
record
lows. He
has
touted
his work
on
criminal
justice
reform
and
criticized
Biden’s
support
of a
crime
bill in
the
1990s
that
established
harsh
penalties
for
nonviolent
drug
crimes,
which
Biden
has
recently
called a
mistake.
“For
decades,
Democrats
had made
empty
promises
to the
Black
community
and
reaped
the
benefits
of the
Black
vote
without
delivering
on their
words,”
said
Katrina
Pierson,
a Trump
2020
senior
advisor.
VOTING
‘AGAINST
ALL
ODDS’
Black
voters
are
being
courted
by an
array of
political
action
committees,
tech
companies
that
analyze
data and
progressive
groups,
along
with the
traditional
efforts
led by
party
committees
and
churches.
More
Than a
Vote, a
group
launched
by
athletes
and
artists
including
Los
Angeles
Lakers
star
LeBron
James,
is
offering
$15
coupons
towards
Lyft
rides to
arena
voting
centers
in five
battleground
state
cities:
Atlanta,
Charlotte,
Detroit,
Houston
and
Orlando.
The
group
has also
teamed
up with
former
First
Lady
Michelle
Obama’s
“When We
All
Vote”
initiative
to
provide
food,
music,
protective
gear and
free
legal
help in
early
voting
sites.
Yvette
Simpson,
chief
executive
of
Democracy
for
America,
said the
progressive
group
has used
text
messages
to
target
1.7
million
mostly
Black
and
Latino
voters
in 13
battleground
states
with a
simple
message:
“’Your
right to
vote is
at
stake,’”
Simpson
said.
“’We
need you
to
exercise
that
right
against
all
odds,
and here
is the
information
you need
to do
that.’”
Mobilization
groups,
however,
remain
uneasy
about
the
pandemic’s
disruption
to
traditional
get-out-the-vote
efforts.
In
Michigan
- where
a lack
of
enthusiasm
among
Black
voters
for
Democratic
presidential
candidate
Hillary
Clinton
in 2016
allowed
Trump to
eke out
a narrow
win - a
coalition
of
organizations
launched
a drive
to
register
100,000
voters
of color
this
year. It
ended up
with
just
20,000.
“We
usually
go
door-to-door,
canvassing,
go to
events,
go to
grocery
stores
and
places
that are
heavily
trafficked
to
register
people,”
said
Tameka
Ramsey,
co-director
with
Michigan
Voices,
a
non-partisan
group
that
participated
in the
campaign.
“None of
that
really
happened.”
In
Michigan,
2016
still
haunts
Democrats.
Turnout
in Wayne
County,
which
includes
Detroit
and the
largest
share of
the
state’s
Black
voters,
dipped
by
37,000
votes
that
year
from
2012.
Trump
ended up
winning
Michigan
by fewer
than
11,000
votes.
This
year’s
early
showing
points
to more
engagement.
As of
Monday,
more
than
347,000
Wayne
County
voters
had cast
ballots,
more
than
triple
the
figure
from the
same
point in
2016.
BlackPAC,
a
left-leaning
political
action
committee
that
tries to
mobilize
black
voters,
has
relied
on a
mostly
phone
campaign
since
the
coronavirus
pandemic
struck.
Making
contact
has been
a
challenge,
said
Adrianne
Shropshire,
the
group’s
executive
director.
But she
said
voters
who
answered
turned
out to
be eager
for
conversation,
particularly
about
the
mechanics
of mail
voting
and
recent
operational
changes
at the
U.S.
Postal
Service
that
have
slowed
delivery.
“I
think
that was
at the
height
of when
people
were
saying,
this is
completely
outrageous,”
Shropshire
said.
In
North
Carolina,
where
African
Americans
make up
a fifth
of the
voting
population,
more
than
690,000
Black
voters
had cast
ballots
by mail
or
through
early
in-person
voting
as of
Oct. 26,
according
to data
compiled
by the
U.S.
Elections
Project,
an
information
center
based at
the
University
of
Florida.
That’s
almost
equal to
the
number
who
voted
early in
all of
2016,
according
to data
provided
by J.
Michael
Bitzer,
a
politics
and
history
professor
at
Catawba
College
in
Salisbury,
North
Carolina
who
studies
the
state’s
voting
patterns.
Trump
won
North
Carolina
in 2016,
but
recent
polling
averages
show a
dead
heat
there.
Early
tallies
in
Georgia,
another
Southern
state
with a
history
of
racial
barriers
to
voting,
also
show
Black
voter
turnout
on pace
to
exceed
levels
recorded
four
years
ago,
according
to data
from the
Secretary
of
State.
A SURGE
IN TEXAS
Fights
over
voting
rules
have
roiled
the
country
this
year,
but
nowhere
more
intensely
than in
Texas,
dominated
by
Republicans
for
decades.
Trump
won
Texas by
nine
points
in 2016,
but
recent
polls
show
Trump
and
Biden in
an
unexpectedly
tight
contest.
Texas
already
had one
of the
strictest
voter ID
laws in
the
country
and
restricts
mail
balloting
mainly
to the
elderly
and
disabled.
This
year,
Republicans
fought
off
Democratic
efforts
to allow
more
Texans
to vote
by mail
during
the
pandemic
on the
grounds
that it
would
encourage
fraud.
In
addition,
Republican
Governor
Greg
Abbott
limited
the
number
of drop
boxes
for mail
ballots
to one
per
county,
saying
he had a
duty to
“maintain
the
integrity
of
elections.”
In
Harris
County,
where
about
20% of
the 4.7
million
residents
are
Black,
County
Clerk
Chris
Collins,
an
African
American,
found
other
ways to
expand
voting
access,
namely
by
opening
120
early
voting
locations
across
the
county –
triple
the
number
from
four
years
ago.
Turnout
is
surging
across
the
county,
which
includes
the city
of
Houston.
Ida
Hammonds,
a
72-year-old
retired
hair
stylist
in
Houston,
said she
grew up
hearing
her
father’s
stories
about
poll
taxes
and
other
methods
used to
disenfranchise
Black
voters.
Although
she
qualifies
to vote
by mail
in
Texas,
she cast
an early
in-person
ballot
on
Sunday
to make
sure it
would
count.
“I
think
the
future
of our
country,
and
Black
peoples’
place in
it, is
on the
line in
this
election,”
Hammonds
said.
Joseph
Tanfani
reported
from New
Jersey
and
Michael
Martina
from
Michigan.
Additional
reporting
by Brad
Brooks
from
Texas,
Tim Reid
from Los
Angeles
and
Chris
Kahn in
New
York.
Editing
by
Soyoung
Kim and
Marla
Dickerso
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