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Defibrillator for a dying democracy: more power to more people

by Earle J. Fisher

November 9, 2016, I woke up with a hangover. I haven’t drunk any alcohol since 2009. But I’m still aware of the symptoms. What happened the previous night had not fully toxified and my body responded with distress.

Part of what made the last presidential election so nauseating for me was that I knew what happened the night before would change the trajectory of my life for the next ten to twenty years.  As I look at the age of 40 on the horizon this September, I’m mindful of what has happened at pivotal moments in the past. I decided to respond to the election of the 45th president by looking locally at what has happened in recent elections. The primary problem (irrespective of who won the elections) was an abysmal voter turnout.

To be sure, what has happened in Memphis and Shelby County relative to voting is reflective of a larger trend.  Pew Research Center has recently presented data highlighting that although over half of the voting age population (VAP) in the country turned out in 2016, the U.S.  is still “behind most of its peers in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), most of whose members are highly developed, democratic states.” In fact, the U.S. ranked 26th out of 32 OECD nations. That’s not good.

To add insult to electoral injury, Tennessee has hit rock bottom and currently ranks 50th in voter turnout.

One contributing factor to low voter turnout is voter apathy; a depressive disengagement due to years of failed leadership and broken promises. Another factor is voter suppression schemes throughout the country, but especially in the south. Tennessee has encountered many of the same tactics (like voter ID laws) that the North Carolina Supreme court ruled “target African Americans with almost surgical precision.”

The political disenfranchisement of black voters through public policy and criminalization is nothing short of deadly when you live in a city and county where the majority of the citizens are black but the majority of those benefitting from governmental measures, tax dollars, political appointments and electoral results are white males.

These grim realities led me to organize a group of community stakeholders and organizations to stem the tide of voter disengagement. I fundamentally believe that more people informed and involved in the political process serve the entire community better.

To that end, in November of 2017 we began the non-partisan Memphis/Shelby County Voter Collaborative, which many have come to know as #UPTheVote901 initiative.  We have adopted a succinct goal – to increase voter turnout in Memphis and Shelby County in 2018, 2019, and 2020.

From November 2017 to May of 2018, we did a lot to engage voters where they are and see what issues ignited their passions and what inadequacies contributed to their apathy. What we found in most cases was not some deep distrust of the political system wholesale. To be sure, some did believe that the current infrastructure is contaminated and people on both sides of the aisle a committed to a peculiar form of exploitation of the masses.

However, the clear majority simply felt uninformed or ill-informed. This lack of pertinent and powerful information led to many people sitting out elections only to become disenchanted by the results. Therefore, #UPTheVote901 choose to center our efforts on voter’s education, engagement, and empowerment – not simply voter registration.

Based upon some strategic planning, righteous and timely partnerships, and some divine winds blowing in the progressive direction, we were able to see a slight increase in voter turnout in the Shelby County Primary Elections in May. We do not claim sole (or even primary) responsibility for the uptick.

Yet, we are confident that our social media campaigns, canvassing initiatives, clergy committees, symposiums, rotating block parties, emails, text messages, rides to the polls, and other efforts were positively impactful.

We intended to further intensify, polish and coordinate our efforts heading into the County General and Federal Primary elections on August 2 and the elections that will soon follow.

We hope residents see the necessity of our initiative and join us. In areas where voter turnout is high we see governmental polices, practices and people who more effectively and efficiently benefit most of the citizens in the community. This is not happenstance. This is the way democracy is supposed to work.

Sadly, democracy seems to be on life support in Memphis and Shelby County. The remedy is not some superhero politician being elected into office (irrespective of party affiliation, gender, socio-economic status, race, age, etc.).  The only defibrillator for a dying democracy is more power to more people.

That’s the agenda of #UPTheVote901.

If you want to connect with us, text UPTHEVOTE901 to 79797 and check out UPTheVote901.com. You can also join us at our next strategy meeting on June 23 at 1 p.m. at the National Civil Rights Museum.

(The Rev. Earle J. Fisher is the senior pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church in Memphis and the co-founder of the Memphis Grassroots Organizations Coalition. He is also a PhD student in the Communications Department at the University of Memphis and the president of the Greater Whitehaven Economic Redevelopment Corporation. 

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