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Celebrating Hope Springs Volunteers for their Voter Outreach Efforts in Black Neighborhoods [1]
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Date: 2023-06-19
Today is Juneteenth, a reminder of how difficult the struggle is for minorities to become fully American, the ongoing attempt to live in equality with the white emigrants from Europe. Volunteers from Hope Springs from Field PAC have driven our efforts in the field and "put our shoulder to the wheel, staying with it until justice is real." Juneteenth is a Celebration of Freedom, but what it represents is something we celebrate every weekend, weather permitting!
When we started canvassing for Rev. Warnock after the first Senate Runoff, one of the first things our Albany State organizers wanted to emphasize was Minority Volunteers to Minority Voters Canvassing. They wanted African-American Voters to see Black Volunteers knock on their doors. But this is a lofty goal, but not as practical as it sounds. 65% (maybe higher) of our Runoff volunteers were African-American, so we let our Black organizers cut turf with that thought. And after walking with segregated turf for one or two weekends, they decided it wasn’t worth it. This is one of the reasons why, when teaching organizers how to cut turf, we want them to walk turf they cut so they understand how volunteers will react to it. “I didn’t like the fact that I knew I was walking past Democrats to get to the next door,” one organizer responded.
But they had to see it for themselves. Because the premise made sense to them. And, yet, what we have found is that minority voters don’t necessarily need to see a volunteer at their door as long as they know there are minority volunteers out knocking with them (because people talk!), there are minority candidates on their ballot and we are asking them about needs and issues like Constituent Service Request forms and/or Incident Reports. As long as they feel like volunteers are showing that government can and should work for them. But it is critical, when knocking on doors in minority majority neighborhoods to recruit, train and encourage minority volunteers as a critical component to our canvassing strategy.
And, while i realize i am beating this drum incessantly, it is really important to encourage candidates who look like the people they would represent to run for office. For Democrats, especially, ticket balance is critical for higher turnouts. Not just ethnically, but in all the ways that voters in that area self-identify. I will talk about this more tomorrow, but we don’t need to hyperfocus on the top of the ticket, the Democratic ballot should represent all the kinds of voters and work to contest as many races on the ballot as possible. It’s not easy.
Hope Springs from Field has also incorporated brilliant tactics outside of politics and campaigns. In this case, we have partnered with African-American Churches in their efforts (and goal) to boost voter turnout amongst their membership and community. The Black Church is central to the African-American community, especially in the South and larger cities. Probably the most important way we work together is to match their membership lists with the voter file through our access to VAN. This allows congregation Elections Committees (or those with that responsibility in the church) to micro-target those who can be registered with the delicate sensitivity needed in many of these states.
But VAN is not the only resource Hope Springs has made available to our partner churches. We also have provided Constituent Service Request forms and Incident Reports for our partner Black Churches to distribute as they see fit. Incident Reports for Election Committees or their volunteer counterparts to have on hand for any member (or attendee) to fill out if they have witnessed voter suppression or acts of voter intimidation. In the past year, we have been collecting Incident Reports from witnesses who have experienced issues with voting in prior elections. The Incident Reports we use are, of course, designed for witnesses on election day, but they can also be used ex post facto to help warn of us where likely occurrences of voter intimidation or suppression could happen.
We are now working with 2,838 Black congregations of various denominations participating in our Voter Registration and Election Protection efforts in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. We are talking to Black Churches in Michigan, as well.
While Hope Springs from Field volunteers have registered (or re-registered) 21,553 voters at their doors, our partner churches have registered 98,183 voters (we don’t include the latter numbers in our weekly stats diaries because they aren’t gained at the door).
Volunteers have collected 1,806 Incident Reports at the door but through our partnership with Black Churches another 6,311 Incident Reports have been collected. These reports are combined with other historical data about voter suppression and polling place issues — including opening up on time (many voters like to cast ballots on their way to work and failure to open up a polling location on time can cause voters to leave without having cast a ballot in order to be at work on time). We combine historical data to look for patterns, because we have learned that voter suppression is often repeated in the same place. And not always by the same people. But patterns of voter suppression and polling place neglect are things we are looking for so that we can send teams to those locations to help deter, mitigate or possibly even take to court on election day.
One of the key reasons why we offer and collect Election Incident Reports is because we understand that voter suppression is historical. It is historical across a broad range of techniques and we now know that Republicans and conservatives share those techniques and tactics with each other, including training others in their tactics. By collecting post-incident reports, we are notifying minority voters that we are out there looking for them and actively protecting their Right to Vote. We are giving them confidence that they can vote without incident, that their vote will be counted and any attempt to prevent them from casting a lawful vote will be prosecuted.
Hope Springs from Field has been knocking on doors since March in a grassroots effort to prepare the 2024 Electoral Battleground in what has been called the First and Second Rounds of a traditional Five Round Canvass. We are canvassing Democrats and unaffiliated voters with a systematic approach that reminds them not only that Democrats care, but Democrats are determined to deliver the best government possible to all Americans.
Obviously, we rely on grassroots support, so if you support field/grassroots organizing, voter registration (and follow-up) and our efforts to protect our voters, we would certainly appreciate your support:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/2024electionprotection
Hope Springs from Field PAC understands that volunteer to voter personal interactions are critical. Knocking on doors has repeatedly been found to be the most successful tactic to get voters to cast a ballot and that is the goal of what we do.
Out of necessity, more than anything else, we have also partnered with students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Divine Nine alums to man canvassing, GOTV, to serve as Poll Watchers, and, especially, man Election Protection tables at precincts where we expect voter intimidation or suppression might re-occur. Here’s the thing: we have found volunteers from HBCUs/Divine Nine who canvass with us not only inspire higher turnout among African-Americans but also students still in school. For the inspiration factor alone, these have been invaluable volunteers for our canvassing efforts. But these volunteers have also elicited some of the most valuable input from the African-American voters we have canvassed.
These volunteers were also the most invaluable in our efforts to counteract KKK Voter Suppression in Georgia. Our HBCU organizers came up with the idea to use a drone to watch for possible gatherings of KKK (KKK voter intimidation was discussed here) during GOTV in the first Senate Runoff. Many if not most of them were already aware that we would notify local law enforcement when we knocked on doors in some areas, and, at that time when the idea of using a drone for volunteer protection came up, one person noted, "we'll have to call the cops." And the FAA, I replied.
A local (Black) farmer (maybe a relative) had a drone he used and they to borrow it. We notified law enforcement that we would be using it -- we did *not* ask for permission (only the FAA could have denied its use, and we actually never heard back from them) -- thus likely assuring that KKK members in the area would find out about it. We deployed it where our canvassers thought they might face a threat. But the threat suddenly disappeared, and these college kids had just won their first battle.
We have now borrowed 7 different drones from local supporters in areas where organizers have believed they might be under threat. But this is what the grassroots does — solve problems that could hinder our cause. And some of these solutions are ingenious!
Our HBCU organizers also decided we needed to make sure that everyone in their communities had proper identification. And they knew that not everyone they knew did. Not everyone who wants to vote in these poorer Black Belt areas had a driver's license or a picture ID -- and they have made it their mission to remedy that. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "About 3% of registered voters don’t have a license or state ID number on file, and they would need to submit additional documentation." But the percentages are much higher in the Black Belt (some think it could be as high as 20% there).
So, for these organizers, the number one question they wanted asked at the door was, Do you have proper ID? Not are you registered to vote. Do you have a picture ID? And if they didn't, they asked, "What can we do to help you obtain one?" We have been helping voters obtain Voter Photo IDs every since.
On June 12th, 2021, Hope Springs from Field began canvassing in the Black Belt of Georgia, repeating our steps in the Georgia Senate Runoff, with a special emphasis on helping voters without the newly required photo IDs to obtain them. The Georgia Voter ID card became a special emphasis and we married our canvassing with our work with Black Churches in the state around it. We continue to do this in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina.
We have completed 64 Voter ID days in the last 25 months and helped 19,972 voters get photo ID cards so they can vote. Our efforts in Florida are more nuanced and we don’t track the results and those in North Carolina have just begun due to the changes from the state Supreme Court. We continue to talk to voters in North Carolina about the Voter Photo IDs and have already found 423 voters at the doors who told us they need the necessary photo IDs.
In polling locations with historical patterns of voter intimidation and/or suppression, we established outside observers (teams which did not need nor receive poll credentials) to be placed at the entrances of these polling locations. Last cycle, in Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, we’ve identified 184 polling places that fits our definition of historical patterns of primary voter intimidation. 2 or 3 volunteers manned an Incidence Table from a half hour after polls open to a half hour after they close (generally in 4 hour shifts). They basically act as support teams, both for the Poll Watchers inside as well as voters outside. We found in the primaries that this back-up system gave our voters and poll watchers greater confidence in their ability to vote and/or do their job.
These support teams for poll watchers will serve as pre- and post- voting alert and reporting functions so that voters who see something can say something. But the primary function of these very visible observer stations are to let voters and those with ill intent to know that we are there. Other groups do this as well, and the best example of other groups doing this were the “circus-like” or party areas that another group did to boost turnout in Georgia last year in that Runoff. As i mentioned, the grassroots can be ingenious!
If you are able to support our efforts to protect Democratic voters, especially in minority communities, expand the electorate, and believe in grassroots efforts to increase voter participation and election protection, please help:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/2024electionprotection
Thank you for your support. This work depends on you!
Happy Juneteenth to our volunteers, donors, supporters and other activists from Hope Springs from Field!
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