Oyindamola Akintola (left), director of events for AliefVotes, speaks to Houston Ethnic Media leaders at a get out the vote briefing, as her colleague Abby Gail Trino (right) looks on (Photo Credit: Todd A. Smith/Regal Media Group).
Many community activists urge all Americans to vote, no matter who they cast their ballot for.
With that in mind, Houston ethnic media executives sat down with community leaders on Sept. 17 to discuss the challenges that they have seen in mobilizing voters, the barriers that people encounter when trying to cast their ballot and what Get Out the Vote workers plan to do address those issues.
“Families are afraid to register to vote, especially those who are migrants or immigrants from another country,” said Jesus Zamora, Texas Field Manager for Mi Familia en Accion.
Zamora added that anti-immigrant rhetoric has had a negative impact on voters’ confidence in Harris County, Texas.
Anti-immigrant rhetoric has hit a fevered pitch since the presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump when the former commander-in-chief falsely claimed that legal Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio were terrorizing the city by kidnapping pets and eating them.
Those false allegations have led to many violent threats against Haitian migrants, causing many schools and government buildings to temporarily close for safety concerns.
The Republican presidential nominee has vowed to deport the legal Haitian migrants if elected for a second non-consecutive term.
Trump has made it a point to ensure that non-United States residents cannot cast a vote in the 2024 presidential election, even though it is already illegal to do so and there is no proof that non-citizen voting is a major problem.
Regardless, the rhetoric has caused many to become hesitant to cast their voters for fear of running afoul of the law.
Zamora said that all the controversy has created apathy within many minority communities because many feel that things will not improve no matter who gets elected.
Nevertheless, Zamora and Mi Familia Accion continue to work to make sure people in the Hispanic community have confidence in the electoral process.
In Houston, Mi Familia Accion has partnerships with local school districts like Aldine Independent School District, Alief Independent School District and Houston Independent School District to educate students on the job duties for elected positions.
Once the students learn about elected positions, they can pass that information onto their family members of voting age.
Additionally, the organization has boots on the ground meeting community members in stores and other public places to educate them on the voting process.
One of the major hurdles in getting citizens from immigrant communities to vote is language access.
Deborah Chen, who serves as program director for OCA Greater Houston, said, “People who are limited English proficient still have the right for language access…to bring whoever they choose to help them vote, as long as that person is not their boss or union representative.”
Chen added, “SB1 created a lot of confusion and fear in the community, both with individuals and organizations…
“We are actively training all of our canvassers to no longer be able to help people find out where to vote. All we can say is, ‘Here’s the website, you have to look it up yourself.’”
Because of SB1, canvassers cannot tell potential voters where they can cast their votes.
Lindsey Norward of the Legal Defense Fund wrote, “Since being enacted in 2021, (SB1) has already had grave consequences, rendering many residents unable to vote and making the process of voting far more onerous and burdensome, resulting in significantly longer voting times and physical pain for some voters with disabilities. Some who attempted to vote had their ballots denied.”
Norwood added, “Plaintiffs [in a lawsuit against SB1] …argue that SB1 violates the United States Constitution and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by targeting and burdening methods and means of voting, like drive thru voting and 24-hour voting, that are largely used by voters of color.”
Critics of SB1 say that the law makes it harder to vote via mail and more difficult to receive assistance to vote if the voter has a disability.
Although some say that laws like SB1 have made it more difficult for citizens to vote, organizations like the League of Women Voters want voters as educated as possible when they do go to the polls on Nov. 5.
The League of Women Voters has created a nonpartisan voter guide for decades that gives voters pertinent information about many of the candidates.
“This year it is 72 pages long because it covers all the races here in Harris County, and we have at least 80 percent participation from the top of the ballot all the way down,” said Katie Campbell Shumway, executive director for League of Women Voters.
She added, “Having this voters’ guide is really, really important…especially since you can’t have your phones in the polling booths.”
Campbell Shumway said, “We launched a digital version of this voters’ guide so it can be more interactive…Last year the spring election had over 13,000 downloads of the PDF version.”
With certain celebrity political endorsements, the number of younger citizens getting registered to votes has increased.
Organizations like AliefVotes have done their part on the local level with voter registration and civic engagement.
Oyindamola Akintola, a senior at Alief Early College High School and director of events at AliefVotes, said that many young minorities feel disconnected from the political process.
Therefore, AliefVotes attempts to overcome that disconnect by engaging in conversations, in person and via social media, about why it is so important to have their voices heard at the ballot box.
Akintola said, “Young people should be able to engage in political spaces, and we should make those spaces more welcoming for them so that they can feel empowered to make a difference.”
