Banking on mail ballot trends, Sen. Jones launches project to register Black voters
In an effort to boost Florida Democrats’ voter registration numbers, state Sen. Shevrin Jones is launching a new project to increase mail voting in Black communities with low participation rates ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
Operation BlackOut, the initiative led by Jones, aims to enroll over 40,000 “non-traditional, unlikely Black and brown progressive voters” into vote-by-mail, doubling down on a recent trend of Democrats opting to vote by mail over voting in person. While the group’s funding sources are vague, Jones is partnering with Equal Ground, Florida Ground Game and the Florida Alliance, a dark-money group that is funding other voter registration initiatives for Democrats.
“If we are going to turn the tide and grow power, we need to expand the electorate through voter registration as well as engage and turn out the millions of Black and Brown voters who do not vote,” said Jones in a statement.
The initiative will be launched on Thursday morning in a virtual Zoom call, with kickoff events in Tampa and Sarasota on Friday. As part of the roll-out, Operation BlackOut has a website where voters will be directly linked to their county supervisor of elections to request a mail ballot.
“Nearly all data experts agree that Florida Democrats can’t simply register our way to a win in a state too often lost on the margins — it is imperative that we boost engagement with sporadic voters, particularly young people and in communities of color, who feel disenchanted with politics these days,” he added.
In the 2020 general election, Florida Democrats cast 680,000 more mail ballots than Republicans. And in the recent special election for Florida’s 20th Congressional District — a safely Democratic and Black-majority district — Broward Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott said three times as many people voted by mail than those who went in person.
Jones said the effort was also launching during Black History Month and as civil rights groups are in court challenging SB 90, a sweeping law passed last year that limits the use of ballot boxes and the amount of mail ballots a person can possess. In a press release, he adds that if the recent trends hold for Democrats, the initiative could expand the electorate by 20,000 to 30,000 new voters for progressive candidates, a margin he notes was enough to win three statewide Florida elections in 2018.
Operation BlackOut is run by Civic Roots Action, Inc., a 501(c)(4) nonprofit advocacy organization where Jones is listed as one of its officers. Civic Roots Action’s stated purpose is to educate the public “to encourage civic participation and empowerment.”
This story was originally published February 10, 2022 at 9:53 AM.
