Baltimore City saw a less than 42 percent turnout during the last midterm election (2010), and with the 2014 election less than a week away, various interested parties, from community groups to unions to political campaigns, are working to get Baltimoreans to the polls.
Tessa Hill-Aston, president of the Baltimore City NAACP. (Photo Courtesy of www.naacp.org)
Tessa Hill-Aston, president of the Baltimore City NAACP, says her organization has been maximizing its limited resources in order to get out the vote, with an emphasis up to now on early voting. In addition to reaching out to churches in order to get voters to the polls last Sunday (Oct. 26), Hill-Aston has been working with a team of about 10 volunteers and targeting neighborhoods in the 21217 zip code such as Druid Heights and Penn North.
“We are trying to get the numbers up because that has been an area that has had low voter turnout,” said Hill-Aston.
Hill-Aston has also teamed up with some parents in Cherry Hill to canvass for voters in another neighborhood where turnout often suffers.
The presumptive delegates for the 40th and 45th districts, Antonio Hayes and Cory McCray respectively, have teamed up with Baltimore City councilman Brandon Scott to implement a campaign that was first tried out in Colorado and focuses on social media outreach.
The campaign, called ‘Roll Up Your Sleeves and Vote,’ works in a manner similar to this summer’s viral ice bucket challenge, only instead of pouring frigid water on oneself, persons go out and vote, write the phrase ‘I voted’ on themselves, post a picture of it online, and challenge five friends to get to the polls and do the same.
According to McCray, the trio decided to pursue this voter outreach method because “We realized that the first several days there was low voter turnout.”
“We just launched it yesterday (Oct. 27) morning at eleven o’clock,” said Hayes of the social media campaign, “and within the last 24 hours we’ve reached over 7,000 people who’ve logged into the Facebook page that we set up.”
Hayes said this weekend he and other local Democrats will also be using “old school” sound trucks to get the word out about the election and ask people to vote Democrat. Much of Park Heights, a neighborhood with generally low election participation, is in Hayes’ 40th, and he says social media and methods like the sound trucks are much more effective at getting the word out about elections, especially to younger voters.
The Rev. Meredith Moise, an area minister with the Old Catholic Movement and activist, has been working with Baltimoreans United In Leadership Development (BUILD), a coalition of Baltimore schools and churches.
“We need a governor who will bring jobs to the state, especially to Baltimore City,” said Rev. Moise, about why she’s working to register voters with BUILD. “We need a governor who is committed to making sure our children have the best schools and most qualified teachers to encourage and cultivate the natural genius of our kids. The people, ordinary citizens, must be a priority for the next administration.”
Local unions have also been doing their part to get voters to the polls. UNITE Here Local 7 will be volunteering for the Brown campaign on Election Day. The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Councils 3 (representing state employees) and 67 (representing Baltimore City employees) have also been reaching out to their membership in anticipation of next Tuesday’s election. According to Jeff Pittman, communications director for AFSCME Council 3, the two councils represent over 7,000 members living in Baltimore City, and the union’s door knocking efforts have reached approximately 6,200 voters in Baltimore already.
ralejandro@afro.com