With early voting beginning underway across Tennessee, a diverse collaboration of leading local women’s groups begins its campaign to urge women to vote and vote early.
A press conference and rally to kick off its early voting campaign was held on Saturday, October 19, at 10:00 a.m. at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, 70 N. Bellevue Blvd. in Memphis. The purpose of this press conference and rally was to make the community, and women specifically, aware of the issues impacting women and their families and why their vote matters in this very consequential election. After the rally, the women participants voted at this early voting site and begin passing out early voting information in locations where women gather as well as using various social media networks to encourage women to vote early.
Women organizations participating in the Women Vote Early campaign included National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc., Memphis Chapter (Lead), Memphis Area Women’s Council (Co-Lead), League of Women Voters of Memphis and Shelby County, Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, SisterReach, The Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Beta Epsilon Chapter, Lori Spicer Robertson-Wundher, The Family Safety Center, NAACP Memphis Branch, Memphis Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, Inc. and other committed individual women in our community.
Women make up the largest voting bloc in Shelby County and have led steadfastly in voter turnout here and nationally. Still, research by the Rutgers University Center for American Women and Politics says nearly 4 out of 10 women do not make their voices heard by casting a ballot. This non-partisan Women Vote Early campaign wants to change this thought process by encouraging all women regardless of race, culture, or political affiliation in Memphis and Shelby County to vote and vote early.
The policies and laws that will be made over the next few years will significantly impact the lives of women, their families, and the non-profit organizations that support women’s causes for many years to come. The gender pay gap, violence against women and girls, gun violence in schools and access to complete and affordable healthcare, including reproductive health care, are just a few of the crucial issues that make voting so important for women today.