‘Won’t miss it for the world.’ Miami groups mobilize Black voters in ‘Souls to the Polls’
Sandra Copeland has been holding on to her absentee ballot since June. Though she’s had it filled it out for weeks, she opted to make an event out of it and waited for the last day of early voting in Miami-Dade County and drop it off with her fellow congregants from the Pentecostal Church of God on 59th Street.
“The thing is, I always vote. I’ve been voting ever since I was 18 years old and I’m 65 years old and I won’t miss it for the world,” said Copeland.
While some opted to vote in person, several hundreds gathered in cars, on bikes and motorcycles for the third ever “Souls to the Polls” parade in Miami Gardens, as faith leaders and organizers in the rights restoration movement mobilized dozens in Black communities to the polls — caravan-style, to adjust to COVID-19 distancing guidelines.
Voters gathered in the parking lot of the Calder Casino around Noon and drove over to the North Dade Regional Library about an hour later, led by a charter bus from the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, leaders of the movement for Amendment 4 in Florida, which restored voting rights for some felons.
Volunteers walked up to cars and handed out flyers for candidates like Florida Rep. Shevrin Jones, who is running for State Senate District 35, and Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, who is running for Miami-Dade County Commissioner District 1.
While the coronavirus pandemic has led to a smaller voter registration numbers than those initially projected by “Get Out the Vote” groups, Miami-Dade is expected to surpass all of the 305,000 ballots cast in the early voting period during the 2018 primaries. As of Sunday morning, 2.6 million ballots had already been cast in Florida during the two-week early voting period.
But concerns over funding of the United States Postal Service heading into the general election were still on voters minds as they headed to the polls on Sunday.
“We’re concerned about our voting rights being protected. We want to monitor and make sure that there’s no voter suppression during this primary,” said Pastor Rhonda Thomas, executive director for Faith in Florida. “It upsets us to see our [USPS] being targeted in a way that in our eyesight it lines up with voter suppression.”
Pamela Knox-Shuler, president of Sisters of Grace, the South Florida chapter of the women’s club Red Hat Society, said the “Souls to the Polls” event has taken on a new meaning in 2020, as churches and community leaders have fought to challenge apathy and fear that ballots won’t be counted.
“Some people are getting the attitude, ‘why should I even try? Why should I try when I’m hearing it’s not going to count?’” said Knox-Shuler. “People are afraid for what the TV is telling them that, our president and those supporting that, their votes may not get to the post office.”
But church leaders have played a big role in battling indifference, said Pastor Benjamin Parrott of the Christian Fellowship M.B. Church in Liberty City, who added that the closure of places of worship has not changed engagement among congregants. Now, they’re using their “virtual pulpit.”
“Many of us have different sources that we’re using, Facebooking, teleconferencing,” said Parrott. “That’s what we’ve been saying to our people. Certainly we think that [the primary] is just as important as the November elections because this is where, this is the root ground to our higher leadership roles.”
This story was originally published August 16, 2020 at 3:25 PM.
