Area voters speak out on Election Day
9th November 2020 · 0 Comments
By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer
Around 6:30 p.m. last Tuesday, Election Day, two Latino men walked up to the polling booth located at the New Orleans Fire Department Station 25 on the corner of Carrollton Avenue and Nelson Street, talking quietly between themselves.
Approached by this reporter who was interviewing voters about their experiences on an Election Day that held so much of the country’s future in the balance, the men declined softly, with one saying he had already voted that day. He was back at the polling station as an accompaniment for his family member.
The man who was casting his ballot at the time told this reporter that he didn’t speak great English and sheepishly walked into the fire station, gave his picture ID, and proceeded into the voting booth to exercise his rights.
While the man voted, this reporter again asked the gentleman’s chaperone if they’d want to speak about their experiences, even anonymously. The man shook his head nervously, glanced down and put up his hand to say no. All he said was that he and his family member are Nicaraguan.
His family member finished voting, and the two men shuffled off to their home in the Hollygrove neighborhood, making sure to walk around the firehouse away from the reporter.
The polling station was one of the smallest in the city, with only two booths, and the Nicaraguan man – as well as this reporter – was able to walk in and vote with no wait. The two men, although they voted perfectly legally – an action that made them thoroughly American – were obviously extremely nervous, as if they feared intimidation or negative repercussions for casting their ballots.
In their anxiety, they didn’t want to make waves in a country whose presidential administration had vilified Latinos as criminals, placed immigrant children in cages, and threatened to hound and track them through the Census.
Such anxiety, perhaps, has been one of the defining characteristics of the 2020 election and the years of chaos that lead election and the years of chaos that lead up to it. Tense confrontations during protests, the continued killing of unarmed people of color by police, a global pandemic, the overwhelming influence of terrible, sensationalistic journalism on TV and online … it all, in a way, added up to an American population that lurched toward Election Day, fearful of where our democracy was headed and worried about the United States possibly tearing apart at the seams.
As Election Day approached, the prospects of voter suppression, misinformation and intimidation had many folks concerned that they would be refused the vote, or have their ballots tossed out and left uncounted.
Such tense unease surfaced across New Orleans as The Louisiana Weekly interviewed voters at various polling places.
At Eleanor McMain Secondary School, one voter named Les, who declined to give his last name, expressed cynicism and the election process, just minutes after he had taken part in that system. When asked if he felt every vote mattered and counted in American elections, he shook his head and sighed.
“That is an issue,” he said with resignation, “but it’s a deeper topic and for today. I could talk about it forever.”
Asked whether he was optimistic his vote will count and make a difference, he said, “I’m never optimistic, and I don’t know if there’s much difference [for this election]. I came and voted just out of hope that it would work.”
However, other voters retained some optimism and hope for what lies ahead. Gwennette Pye, who also voted at McMain, told The Louisiana Weekly that her experience that day went off without a hitch, although she added that it took her a while when she was in the booth because there were so many races and state constitutional amendments on the ballot.
Pye said that while she had experienced no problems voting last week, she knows that all voters might not be so lucky. She added that as a country and as people, America needs to uphold democracy and the fairness it promises, saying that as long as someone can and does vote legally, it should matter. “Anytime a person is restrained from their rights, it’s wrong,” she said. “When it comes to voting your preference, you should be able to vote for who you think will do the best job.”
At the NOFD station on Elysian Fields in the Seventh Ward, Kirk Rawles exited the voting booth and said everything went smoothly for him. As 7 p.m. approached and polling hours entered their last, Rawles said he was confident his vote would be counted because of all the election volunteers who were stationed at the firehouse and their efforts.
Calling the 2020 election “one of the most important elections in our lifetime,” Rawles said he was tentatively optimistic about the voting results. “Hopefully the country will go in a different direction, but you never know after tonight,” he said. “I can’t really say. It might not [change]. I can’t say if anything will change.”
Casey Porche, who was at the Elysian Fields fire station in the evening accompanying another voter but who had voted earlier at City Hall, was someone reticent about talking about her voting experience this year. When asked why she voted, she was very direct in her answer.
“So my voice can be heard,” she said.
Another issue – de facto segregation – arose at New Orleans polling stations that reflect the complicated social situation in the city. While some stations, like the one at McMain school, featured voters from a variety of ethnicities, others reflected striking homogeneity. While the Elysian Fields station featured largely African-American voters while this reporter was on site, the polling station at St. Dominic School on Harrison Avenue in Lakeview saw no people of color while the reporter was there.
Several community and non-profit organizations took steps toward ensuring the fairness of the vote in Louisiana and the city, and other groups attempted to document people’s experiences at the polls in an effort to document any voter suppression.
The Urban League of Louisiana, for example, offered assistance on Election Day by opening toll-free hotlines in several languages that voters could call if they had been prevented in any way from voting.
Cafe Reconcile, a local organization dedicated to ending generational poverty through training programs and workforce assistance, closed its doors for the day in order to deliver 1,000 free meals and bottled water to voters at the Dryades YMCA and at nine polling stations across the city.
“Many voters have to work more than one job to make ends meet and support their families. They may not vote for fear of not making their shift on time,” said Gerald Duhon, executive director of Reconcile New Orleans, in a press release. “That shouldn’t be the case. Voting is an important part of our democracy and one that should be easy to access. By closing our doors on Election Day, Reconcile wants to show our community that we believe voting matters.”
The day before the election, the Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance, HousingNOLA, HousingLOUISIANA and Community Change hosted a virtual voting rally to encourage citizens to head to the polls and to press candidates on affordable and fair housing issues.
Government agencies also helped when they could; the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority waived all fees for buses, streetcars and ferries on Election Day to assist voters in getting to the polls.
One of the most intensive fair-voting efforts was by the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice, a group of community organizations focused on empowering citizens in Louisiana through education and information about the most pressing societal and political concerns people face.
Power Coalition program director Janea Jamison told The Louisiana Weekly last Thursday that the organization sent out nearly a hundred non-partisan volunteers and election monitors to roughly 600 polling stations across the state in order to assess voting conditions at each one, including document problems like long waiting lengths, defective voting machines, a lack of poll workers and outright intimidation techniques. In addition, the Power Coalition provided rides to the polls and protection services for voters.
“It’s important that people know their rights, and how they can exercise their rights,” Jamison said.
The coalition also had a team of attorneys ready on a pro bono basis to intervene and assist voters who felt intimidated or discouraged from casting their ballots. As Election Day progressed, Jamison said, concerns that were expressed by voters and reported by monitors were sent to the office of Louisiana Secretary of State R. Kyle Ardoin.
Jamison said problems occurred at several polling sites across Louisiana, including voting machines in Orleans, Lafayette, Caddo and East Baton Rouge parishes with glitches that changed people’s votes for president, as well as long voter lines, including on the Westbank of New Orleans.
She also said some polling station workers attempted to rigorously enforce a regulation given voters three minutes to cast their ballots while in a booth. Across the state, including stations in Orleans Parish, voters who were filling in the lengthy ballots – ones featuring a dozen or more races and numerous amendment referendums – were pestered to leave even if they hadn’t finished.
“It was difficult to complete in three minutes,” Jamison said, adding that the Power Coalition will lobby to have the limit extended. “[The time limit] is ridiculous when there’s so much on the ballot. Poll workers were knocking on [the voting machine] doors and trying to rush them.
“If there’s not an extremely long line,” she added, “there’s no reason to be knocking on that door and shooing them out.”
Jamison added that there was even at least one case of physical intimidation, when a man with a Donald Trump flag and an assault rifle in the town of Baker hovered near a polling station. Voters at the site were unnerved by the man in question. When other people arrived to vehemently confront the man, police were called to de-escalate the situation.
“It definitely gave people a scare,” Jamison said. “It was a scary situation.” Still, she said positively, most voters weren’t deterred by such challenges.
“People were still very determined to vote despite the hiccups,” she said. “They knew the actual steps they needed to take [to vote]. People were still engaged, and they turned out.” But she added, especially in the Deep South, “the work will always be here.”
Jamison told The Louisiana Weekly that the efforts of the Power Coalition and other organizations supporting voter rights were especially vital this year, as nearly a million Louisiana citizens took advantage of an extended early voting period, setting records for such turnout, and many other voters used mail-in or absentee ballots. In addition, the devastating effects of multiple hurricanes this year made it difficult for many Louisianans to even cast their votes.
Back at NOFD Station 25 in the Hollygrove neighborhood, however, proceedings went smoothly and quietly, even if some voters might have been a little anxious or trepidatious. In addition to the two Nicaraguan-Americans, a few other voters were hesitant to be interviewed by The Louisiana Weekly, either saying they were pressed for time or expressing discomfort with providing their names.
One voter named Michael who declined to give his last name said he was enthusiastic about the voting process.
“I’m hopeful [his vote] will matter,” he said. “I’d rather be optimistic than cynical.” But, when pressed, he acknowledged that many Americans were nervous about their votes in the American democracy.
This article originally published in the November 9, 2020 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
