Activists: ‘Everyone needs to vote’
Groups pounding the pavement in NWI for turnout
April Valentine stood outside Sojourner Truth House as a blustery drizzle crept through the city of Gary. She patiently waited for low-income residents to drive through the ministry’s parking lot to receive a cart of items from its food pantry.
The Hammond woman passed out fliers reminding potential voters they need to register by Monday, and that early voting formally begins Tuesday. She did so as co-chair of the Northwest Indiana “cluster” for the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, a nonprofit, nonpartisan social movement initially launched in the late 1960s.
“Most people probably already know about the elections, but they may need a physical reminder,” Valentine told me in between food pantry clients. “Everyone needs to vote. Not everyone is on the internet or reads newspapers about voting information.”
Two years ago, Valentine at
tended a march in Washington, D.C., reawakening in her the spirit of social outreach for moral revival. As the organization’s website states within its 12 principles: “Moral revival is necessary to save the heart and soul of our democracy. Violent tactics or actions will not be tolerated.”
That morning, before she left home, Valentine pondered the meaning behind her volunteer efforts of encouraging strangers to take part in the electoral process. Later that day, she took a break from her job to do so.
“It’s been a process, and a learning experience, but it has been worth my time and effort,” Valentine said. “If even just one (voter) participates, it may be one more than there would have been.”
This civic-minded attitude can be found in every community as Election Day nears and voting is underway, intensified and scrutinized by the divisive presidential race.
“You do what you can,” Valentine said.
Rebecca Chambers, a fellow volunteer with the Poor People’s Campaign, said their local cluster is devoting its energies on get-out-the-vote initiatives, with a special focus on Gary.
“Low-income communities have chronically low-voter turnout. Lowincome Americans are not monolithic. And lowincome nonvoters hold the potential to flip states from blue to red and from red to blue,” Chambers said.
She cited a study, “Unleashing the Power of Poor and Low-Income Americans: Changing the Political Landscape,” commissioned by the Poor People’s Campaign. It defined low-income voters as those with a family income below twice the official federal poverty level.
By this guideline, 140 million Americans are low-income or poor.
Low-income eligible voters are 22% less likely to vote in national elections, the study states. Reasons include chronic illness, disabilities, transportation issues, and a generational misguided belief that their vote doesn’t count or matter.
“In the lead up to the 2016 elections and for most of the 2020 primary season, there were more than three dozen debates without one single hour focused on poverty or the issues facing these millions of people,” the study states.
In the 2016 presidential election, there were 138 million voters out of 225 million eligible voters – 29 million were poor or lowincome, and an additional 34 million poor or lowincome people were eligible but did not vote. In Indiana, this demographic totaled 750,000, with the margin of victory in that election at 520,000, according to the study.
“We are interested in reaching and energizing people who do not regularly vote, or who might be inclined to sit this one out,” Chambers said. “We are dedicating ourselves to reaching as many people as possible.”
The local cluster of members are targeting neighborhoods in Gary, Merrillville, Hammond and Hobart, working in partnership with the Calumet League of Women Voters and Rise Northwest Indiana, which also provided the voter education fliers.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, volunteers have had to be creative with their outreach efforts.
This is another common theme with get-out-thevote initiatives.
“Before COVID, we had bimonthly meetings alternating one month in Lake County and the next in Porter County,” said Kim Eldridge, president of Indivisible Northwest Indiana. “We held town hall forums, and voter registration trainings, drives and sessions to help give our communities civic education.”
“Today, our mission remains the same – to educate voters and get information out there,” she said.
Chapter members reside in the state’s First Congressional district, mostly in Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties, with a few Illinois members.
Roughly 450 members are on its email list, with 800 users on its Facebook page (@IndivisibleNorthwestIndiana).
“This is our pivot point,” the webpage states. “The point where we take our angst, fear, anger and disbelief and we funnel it into action. The only way we change anything is by organizing and building this into something sustainable and powerful that forces the change we want. This is our pivot point from ‘noise’ — to action — to change.”
“We have many people like me who, while voting Democratic most of the time, don’t consider themselves political,” Eldridge said. “I consider myself an activist and it’s all based on issues for me and for many of us.”
The national organization was formed immediately after President Donald Trump’s election, with two former Congressional staffers authoring its “Indivisible Guide.”
“Democrats usually coincide with our values. We work with them where it makes sense. But we are not an arm of the Democratic Party. We have Democrats, independents and even a few moderate Republicans who participate,” Eldridge said. “In the age of Trump, the Republican Party stands against everything we believe in.”
Regardless of political party, this presidential election has compelled voting activists to pound the streets, blitz social media, find every eligible voter, and remind us all the importance of civic engagement.
As one on-the-streets activist told me, “It all helps drive the needle.”
With Election Day just a month away, no one is sure which direction that needle is driving.