Milwaukee Organizations Join Forces to Fight Voter Suppression

On the eve of Wisconsin’s first day of early voting, a crowd of more than 100 gathered outside of Holy Redeemer Church for the interfaith candlelight rally called ‘Light Up Milwaukee.’ With only 14 days left before the Nov. 3 election, Rev. Greg Lewis preached the gospel of the ballot box.

“My community is in critical condition. We on the life support. We on the breathing machine. It’s code blue, code red,” Lewis told the masked-up crowd. “We have to express our power and get out and vote!”

We cannot keep saying that our vote doesn’t matter.

Rev. Greg Lewis

Lewis is executive director of Souls to the Polls, an alliance of inner-city churches working to strengthen the voting power of the Black community. This year, the organization is committed to getting 100,000 people to the polls to vote early.

The 2016 election showed that low voter turnout in Milwaukee helped Donald Trump claim victory. According to New York Times Exit Polls, Trump took the state of Wisconsin by a margin of just 23,000 votes. Back then, 93,000 black voters in the city of Milwaukee did not cast a ballot. Of those who did, 88% voted for Hilary Clinton and only 8% voted for Trump. Black voters in Milwaukee are an essential group for any Democrat to win a statewide election. Souls to the Polls and other Milwaukee organizations have been fighting to restore confidence in the voting process.

Mishandling of April primary elections placed burden on minority voters

“We believe it’s crucial that people see themselves as having the ability to vote. In politics, a lot of the time people are bullied,” said Bruce Colburn, program coordinator at Souls to the Polls. “We’ve done a lot of work around disenfranchisement.”

Colburn said he witnessed injustice play out in the April 7 primary elections. At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Wisconsin was the only state in the country forced to hold in-person voting. Due to the shortage of poll workers, the number of polling stations reduced from 180 to five. Thousands of Black voters waited in line for hours to vote.

“We were given the choice of risking our health to vote or not voting. I chose to risk my health and vote,” said Anita Johnson, voter registration coordinator at Souls to the Polls.   

On March 26, Souls to the Polls filed a lawsuit arguing problems conducting the election would ‘have a disproportionate impact and unconstitutionally heavy burden on minority voters.’

They were unable to postpone in-person voting, however, their proposal to delay the deadline for absentee ballots was successful. As a result, 113,000 extra votes were counted.

We have not shied away from the fact that April 7^th was a disastrous election for voters and really had an impact on equity in that sense.

Claire Woodall-Vogg

For the election on Nov. 3, the WEC ensures that 173 out of the normal 180 polling places will be open. Woodall-Vogg said they’re disappointed to not have been able to add Fiserv Forum and Miller Park to the list of early voting sites, due to statue 6.855. She said the large size and convenience of a drive-thru option made the site unique.

Johnson, on the other hand, believes that the early voting center at Midtown will provide sufficient access for voters in her community.

“It’s easy to get to. I don’t think that’s going to stop people from voting,” Johnson said.

Souls to the Polls mobilizes voters

The pandemic presented new challenges for Johnson as a voter registration coordinator; she has needed to find creative ways to safely practice outreach. Johnson holds informational training sessions via Zoom and participates in virtual town hall meetings to stay connected. On National Voter Registration Day, Johnson organized in front of Cousin Subs at Midtown and registered 25 people, 10-15 of whom had never voted before. Instead of knocking on doors, Johnson created an extensive phone bank for canvassing. She picked five other women, well-known in the church and community, to help make the calls.

“Do not hang up until you have helped them register to vote, helped them change their address or assisted in a request for an absentee ballot,” she told them.

After speaking with hundreds of Milwaukeeans over the last six months, Johnson noted many people are worried about what will happen after Nov. 3.

“People aren’t enthusiastic about getting to the polls, but they’re concerned about their livelihood and how this election is going to affect their lives,” she said.

Johnson focuses on educating people on photo ID laws so that they feel empowered to take part in the political process. Frequent changes to this area of law in the last 10 years created confusion for Milwaukee voters. According to a 2015 analysis by the Cap Times, the Republican-run legislature passed 33 election law changes just in Republican former Gov. Scott Walker’s first term.

Woodall-Vogg says the most common piece of misinformation the Commission sees is about the photo ID laws that went into effect in 2016.

“A lot of people think their ID has to have their current address in order to vote,” she said. “That is a piece of information we are working to counteract.”

The Commission launched “Votes Count in the 414”, a campaign to provide education and awareness on such laws. As part of the campaign, tours are available at the warehouse on Kinnikinnic Ave. where attendees can observe polling workers sort and alphabetize ballots into 325 wards. Woodall-Vogg said the idea is to pull back the curtain and instill trust into how ballots are processed.

Urban Underground Milwaukee

Three days a week, Sharlen Moore leads a youth group (ages 14-18) through low-voter turnout wards in Milwaukee to distribute literature on voting. Due to the pandemic, the kids must abstain from knocking on doors, but that hasn’t stopped them from dropping literature outside of over 800 homes.

Moore is executive director of Urban Underground Milwaukee, a leadership program that focuses on youth empowerment and social justice. She believes it’s vital for young people to understand the political process even if they aren’t old enough to vote yet.

“The best opportunity to talk to people about their civic duty is when they’re young so that they understand the historical context and the power that our ancestors fought for us to get the right to vote,” Moore said.

While canvassing, Moore found many people share the opinion that their vote doesn’t matter. She hopes that by equipping the young people in her program with knowledge, they will share information with friends and family members who will make the choice to vote.

“A lot of our political process has failed our community and so they feel left out, they feel disenfranchised. It’s important for people to understand that their vote absolutely matters,” Moore said.

Election day on the horizon

On Sunday, Oct. 25, Lewis posted a Facebook video asking everyone to make voting their top priority of the day.

“This is the most important election of my lifetime,” he said. “We’re asking everyone to leave church. Leave virtual or in person services and go to the Midtown Shopping Center and vote!”

About 40 people gathered to hear speeches aimed at energizing voters. Rochelle Landingham, executive director of Pastors United, emphasized how important the role of the African American community is in voting. She said only 60% of the Black community voted when President Obama was elected.

“What would happen if it was 85 or 90% of us?” she said.

In his Democratic National Convention speech, Obama said Trump and his allies were “hoping to make it as hard as possible for you to vote and to convince you that your vote doesn’t matter.” Despite Trump’s rhetoric, the Wisconsin Election Commission estimates that 3.1 million Wisconsinites will cast ballots this year, for the first time in history. In a Marquette poll released this week, Biden shows 48% approval rating among Wisconsin voters while only 43% are in favor of Trump. By the efforts of Johnson and the rest of the team at Souls to the Polls, they have signed up almost 70,000 people to vote early, according to Colburn.

Souls to the Polls is offering free Lyft and Uber rides to the polls during Early Vote and on Election Day.