Early voting ends with church-sponsored push
FORTLAUDERDALE— Nearly 300 voters pushed strollers, held placards and chanted as they walked Sunday afternoon from the New Hope Baptist Church to the AfricanAmerican Research Library a mile away to cast ballots on the final day of early voting.
For the mostly black participants, voting early was not only away to encourage others in their community to cast their votes in the primary, but also to fulfill their civic duty.
“Voting is essential to impacting our community,” said Pricia Moisin, who for 13 years has been a member of the Abundant Slide Christian Center, one of several churches that organized the “Souls to the Polls” event.
“Sometimes we forget how important it is to have a diverse group of people in decision- and policy-making; our ancestors died for that right. When it comes to early voting, a lot of us don’t capitalize and some of us do get discouraged waiting in long lines on the last day.”
The church-based initiative was carried out across the country Sunday. On North west Sixth Street in Fort Lauderdale, the crowd was balanced between young and old, families and single adults.
Harold Simmons, a 73-year-old retired educator, ducked under a canopy when it started to rain halfway through the event. The parade of people slowed for about five minutes.
“So many people have died for this, so it’s important to vote,” said Simmons, who has been amember of the New Mount Olive Baptist Church in Fort Lauderdale for 35 years.
“The church is the foundation, it is a place where we can voice our opinions and band together for good, and make a difference,” Simmons said.
At the end of the route, the parking lot had the atmosphere of a street fair, with barbecue tents and other refreshments and hundreds of people in brightly-colored T-shirts handing out pamphlets on candidates.
Voting was brisk: 500 people voted Sunday at the library, according to Tonya Edwards, spokeswoman for the Broward Supervisor of Elections.
Therewere more than 43,000
early voters in Broward and more than 28,800 in Palm Beach County during the early voting period that ended Sunday. Broward elections officials received more than 70,500 vote-by-mail ballots as of Sunday night. Palm Beach County’s vote-by-mail number was unavailable Sunday night.
Several candidates for local municipal races shook hands with passers-by and introduced themselves outside the library. Among the candidates who participated in the march to the pollswere Sheriff Scott Israel andU.S. Rep. DebbieWasserman Schultz, D-Weston, who both face primaries on Tuesday. U.S. Rep. AlceeHastings, D-West Delray, was also there; he faces a general election inNovember.
Voting on election day runs from7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Voters must go to their precinct to vote on Tuesday; vote-by-mail ballots must be returned to the Supervisor of Elections Office by 7 p.m.