How voter turnout and disunity equal disrupted lives
18th November 2024 · 0 Comments
Americans will soon realize the urgent need for their participation in elections, as the consequences of low voter turnout can disrupt lives.
There are about 245 million voting-eligible people in the U.S. and over 168 million registered voters, but according to the Election Lab at the University of Florida, only 63.51 percent turned out to vote for president this month. The turnout numbers for this presidential election were lower than in 2020.
Those numbers nearly mirror the turnout percentage in Louisiana, a state with its own unique political landscape. New Orleans City Business reports that, according to unofficial turnout numbers from the state’s voting portal, in 2024, a lower percentage of voters cast ballots than in the previous three presidential elections.
Only 65.9 percent of Louisianans cast votes, more than two million voters. November 2020 saw the highest recent voter turnout, with 70.1 percent, or nearly 2.15 million, the business magazine reports.
We see the consequences of voters, especially Black voters, who have the most to lose, not going to the polls.
Statewide, the governor’s race in 2023 declined in voter population percentage, dropping to only 36.3 percent of ballots cast in Louisiana’s gubernatorial race in 2023. Of those, only 13 percent of Blacks voted.
As a result, Jeff Landry, former state attorney general, is governor.
Gov. Landry’s agenda apparently includes taking over New Orleans, the economic engine of the state, with a 59-percent Black population. He’s taken over prosecuting juvenile crime cases from the New Orleans district attorney. He has Louisiana State Troopers, who have a reputation for disrespecting the rights of Black Louisianans – no trooper has been held accountable or responsible or punished for the death of Ronald Greene – running through the city. And there’s been talk that Landry wants to embed those troopers into the New Orleans Police Department, which is another takeover move.
The only impediment to that is NOPD’s federal consent decree. If that merger were to happen, the troopers would also have to comply with its rules.
New Orleans already had its public school system taken over by the state.
And because of the decentralized, hodge-podge charter school system, and a NOPS Board whose authority has been virtually decimated, it has recently been reported that MFP (minimum foundation program) funds per pupil has been miscalculated by $30 million. The NOPS Board’s accounting snafu has led to the potential closure of the Rooted School on SUNO’s campus and others.
Abraham Lincoln’s words echo down the decades and are demonstratively true: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
In 1858, Lincoln’s Republican Party chose him to run against incumbent Stephen A. Douglas, a Democrat, who represented Illinois in the U.S. Senate. Back then, the Democrats were really Dixiecrats and racists.
By then, the nation had been divided over slavery for 60 years. Two years before Lincoln’s senatorial speech, sensing a war was brewing, the Republicans gathered 1,300 men to defend the nation against what would become the Confederate States of America.
“We did this under the single impulse of resistance to a common danger, with every external circumstance against us. Of strange, discordant, and even, hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought the battle through, under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and pampered enemy,” Lincoln said.
“The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail – if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise councils may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, but sooner or later the victory is sure to come,” Lincoln added. There were seven debates between Douglas.
Three years later, the American Civil War began over slavery.
Nearly 150 years later, in 2007, then-Senator Barack H. Obama (D-Ill.) quoted Lincoln during the launch of his inaugural presidential bid.
History repeated itself when Obama spoke about the fight against “…strange, discordant, and even hostile elements. We gathered from the four winds and formed and fought the battle through.”
Recalling Lincoln’s challenges and speaking about successive generations, Obama said, “Each and every time, a new generation has risen up and done what’s needed to be done. Today, we are called once more – and it is time for our generation to answer that call.”
“For that is our unyielding faith – that in the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it,” he added.
Low voter turnout has consequences and can disrupt lives in ways no one can anticipate.
But we still have a choice. We must take a page from Lincoln and Obama. We must fight against the “discordant, even hostile elements,” and have faith and hope that this generation coming of age will answer the call to resist and fight. “Because when we fight, we win,” to quote the nation’s first woman and first Black Vice President Kamala Harris.
When will we learn that our vote is our strength?
This article originally published in the November 18, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
