(This is a companion diary to Beating Republicans at their Own Game: Mitigating Voter Suppression on the Ground)
Last weekend, Hope Springs from Field PAC organized Voter Suppression mitigation canvasses in four states where Republicans are seeking to suppress Democrats and like-minded voters from participating in 2022. But we are still dealing with the impact of 2020 and the emotions that ultimately led up to the insurrection on our Capitol. We expect to continue these efforts through Labor Day, 2022.
We organized canvasses in four states on Saturday (and, to a lesser extent, Sunday): Texas, Florida, Georgia and Pennsylvania. In Florida, we were interested in stemming the impact of a “scuffle” (word used by the police) between one or more white men and several Florida residents from Puerto Rico that occurred on election day at one particular polling location south of Kissimmee (although some may technically be in Kissimmee proper — they all have Kissimmee addresses). The incident spilled out into a Publix grocery store miles away from the fire station where people from multiple precincts voted.
Police were called, apparently not by poll workers (there is no indication yet that the “scuffle” occurred in their sight), and several voters called the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law election hotline (which is how we found out about the altercation). But what drew our particular interest — and why we were canvassing there on Saturday and Sunday and into the future — was the fact that the perpetrator(s) took their aggression outside the polling place.
These precincts are on land that used to be cattle ranches. The neighborhoods we canvassed last weekend were off a long winding road with entrances to the different developments more than half a mile apart. Voters we talked to told us about how they had changed in recent years, evolving from completely white middle class neighborhoods, to several of the developments "being taken over" by Puerto Ricans, especially after the twin hurricanes Irma and Maria had devastated the island, and Hispanics who acquired homes in the other developments were treated with suspicion.
Despite the fact that tens of thousands of people who fled the island had to be put up in hotels for long periods of time -- and this was all over the local news -- there was resentment among some whites about the sudden increase in the number of Puerto Ricans in their neighborhoods. It would surprise no one that these homes could house multiple families, especially after FEMA allowances ran out. One white woman described it this way: "This wasn't our American Dream, and we feel trapped." But she said she understood why it happened, it was just uncomfortable for her. (The volunteer who talked to her said he wanted badly to tell her the real estate market is great, and she could always sell. Thankfully, he did not.)
And, in fact, she participated in our collection of Incident Reports, largely memories, of this particular incident, as she had heard about the conflict that had happened at Publix. She said the white man got into a verbal and, some say, physical confrontation with a Latina mother and two small children over the election and yelled: "too many Puerto Ricans voting. Go Home!" These words reverberated in both the white and Latino communities. But only one would be scared by them.
This was not the only documentation we found last weekend. In all, we collected information from 3 people who claimed to have direct knowledge of the altercation at the fire station/polling location and 11 people who had knowledge of the incident at Publix. Among the latter, there was a lot of concern that the white man got so close and loud in front of children, with “extreme gestures.”
Hope Springs from Field PAC has been involved in the efforts to mitigate Voter Suppression efforts, responding to the new laws Republicans are enacting in the various states and expanded practices by thinking how to mitigate them, get around them and make sure we have "super compliance" with them in 2022, helping our voters meet the requirements and get out and vote. We are taking those efforts to the doors of the communities most effected (the intended targets) of these new voter suppression laws. Some of our actions are very simple (asking voters if they are registered at their current address instead of just asking if they are registered to vote) and some are more complex (such as helping voters in these communities meet the ID requirements). So we are returning to the basics old school: repeated contacts, repeated efforts to remind them of the protocols, meeting them were they are.
Obviously, we cannot do this alone. All too often, efforts to mitigate voter suppression have been done in the last month before the general election, generally by campaigns. But they don’t have to be. As Republicans now begin their efforts to shape the electorate at the outset of election cycles, so should we. We need your help to make voter suppression mitigation and super-compliance a year(s) round activity. If you support field/grassroots organizing and our efforts to protect our voters, we would certainly appreciate your support:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/voterprotection
Hope Springs from Field PAC was started by former Obama Field Organizers because field was the cornerstone of our success. The approach we adopted was focused on listening, on connecting voters and their story to the candidate. Repeated face to face interactions are critical. And we are among those who believe that Democrats didn’t do as well in the 2020 Congressional races as expected because we didn’t knock on doors.
Protecting the vote can be pro-active. Even with all the "new" tactics that Trump and his supporters brought out in 2020 (trying to overturn the Electoral College is definitely new!), most voter suppression tactics are old and occur in the same places. Even though the internet allows for greater distribution of knowledge about efforts to keep (largely) minorities from voting, the locations or targets of that activity tends to be the same locations year in and year out. So we know where we need to be connecting with voters who might have faced voter intimidation, suppression or even violence and where we can expect it to happen in future elections.
But the purpose of collecting Incident Reports is not just for the last election, but also for future elections. But OUR purpose on Saturday was as much for preventing future occurrences of voter intimidation and suppression as re-assuring voters in affected areas that Democrats had their backs. Historical patterns are an overwhelming predictor of future incidents.
"We haven't forgotten. We Care!" After a smile, this was the message and impression we asked canvassers to leave with the voters they talked to on Saturday and Sunday. And, sure, if we left the impression with any Republican voters we talked to (Florida does register by party, but there have been a lot of NPA (no political affiliation) in recent years, some of whom are definitely voting Republican) that, 'yes, we are watching,' well, we won't say that's a bad thing.
Canvassing with Incident Reports really makes that point. We know that people talk to each other, and we were not hiding the fact that we were walking with these forms, nor the fact that there are long-standing organizations who have been collecting and recording election incidents for years. Many Republicans think that they can do these kinds of things under the radar. Protecting our voters means that we need to make sure people know it's not hidden from view. The fact that the perpetrator(s) could walk away after an event that reverberated in the Hispanic community in Central Florida just before the insurrection isn’t lost on anyone.
If you support our grassroots efforts to protect the vote, especially in minority communities, please chip in:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/voterprotection