McMain students flock to rock the early vote

By Mason Harrison
Contributing Writer

Dozens of students from Eleanor McMain High School showed up in droves October 21 at City Hall to cast ballots for the first time in municipal, judicial and statewide races dominating political chatter in southeast Louisiana. The students, mostly Black, were registered in September thanks to the efforts of the New Orleans Alumnae Chapter of the Black Greek-letter organization Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

“This effort is part of our organization’s five programmatic thrusts, which include political awareness and involvement,” said local chapter president, Leslie Howard. “In 2012, our goal was to register 2,012 people for the election and we topped our goal by almost 100 residents who weren’t registered.” Howard says her chapter is involved in a number of political and social issues in New Orleans. “We’re getting involved in the debate over the middle belt railroad issue that’s affecting residents in Gert Town,” said Howard. “We also remain interested in issues that impact domestic violence in the New Orleans area.”

Kyla Smith was among the group of McMain students voting for the first time on Tuesday, October
21, the first day of early voting for the November 4th election.

Among the students allowed to vote early were a handful of 18-year-old seniors with knowledge about the various ballot issues. “Once we registered the students to vote, we brought in experts on the various issues to show the students a sample ballot and to tell them the meaning of the items they’d be voting on,” said Tanika Reese-Adams, an instructional math coach at the school and sponsor of the senior class. “The students are excited about being able to vote. We brought the students who are 17 who’ll be old enough to vote in November to observe the process along with the students who’ll be able to vote by December.”

Delta Sigma Theta since its inception in 1913 has emphasized voting rights and political involvement, including participating in the Women’s Suffrage March just two months after the sorority’s founding. The organization was the sole Black women’s group to participate in the march and today features a countdown clock on its national website urging its members to cast ballots in the 2014 mid-term elections.

This article originally published in the October 27, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.