Strength in numbers

It is easy to look at the December 8 runoff election as an afterthought, especially in the wake of last month’s electoral enthusiasm. Even though none of Louisiana’s Congressional seats were in contention, African-American turnout in Louisiana on November 6 constituted 31 percent of the electorate, a rate at — or above — Caucasian voter participation.

It is easy to grow weary, especially at Christmastime. It is easier to focus on home and hearth rather than booth and ballot. It is easiest not to vote.

That would be wrong, especially at a time when there is real evidence of voter suppression emerging from precincts around the nation. When the other side seeks to close access to the ballot box, it should be incumbent upon all of us to fight to cast our ballots.

Nor should disappointing near-victories by Andrew Gillum in Florida, Stacey Abrams in Georgia, and, last week, Mike Espy in Mississippi deter the resolve to vote. Each may have lost, but let us not forget that prominent Black candidates came within a whisker of victory in three states of the Old Confederacy.

Why was that? Mostly due to the fact that African Americans turned out and voted. Yes, the Blue Wave which swept the GOP from decades-held Congressional seats on the coasts proved less present in the Deep South (though three victories in the Houston, Dallas, and Orlando suburbs evidences the wave’s impact here too.)

African-American voters made a real difference here last month too, as The Louisiana Weekly observed on our front page, propelling a Black candidate into the Secretary of State’s runoff, and influencing judicial and parochial races across Metro New Orleans.

The only competitive elections on Saturday may be a Civil District Court race in Orleans, School Board races in Jefferson, council races in Harahan and Slidell, and a legislative race in St. Tammany. Yet, these local contests often impact our daily lives far more than the machinations on Capitol Hill. Moreover, it is from the local bench that our national leaders often emerge. Just ask Barack Obama, who in a period of four years went from the Illinois State Senate to the White House.

Our editors wish ballot access were far improved in Louisiana. Perhaps mail-in ballots constitute too politically impossible a hope for the Pelican State, but some of the ideas first proposed by Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne, when he was Secretary of State, bear a second look — especially his concept to expand early voting locations to shopping malls in public park facilities.

Making access to the ballot box more convenient should be a bipartisan goal. Until it is — and even beyond — never miss the chance to vote.

December 8, 2018 is the seventh day of Advent, the completion of the first week of appreciation of the dawn of a new chapter in our terrestrial human experience.

Birth a new tradition, if your family has not already. Sacrifice an hour to vote this Saturday.

This article originally published in the December 3, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.